Til Death Do Us Part
by Kitty Smith
Summary: Harry and Draco have an odd affliction... They must remain in contact or suffer fates worse than death! And now they have to survive the Triwizard Tournament? later dmhp drarry hpdm dracoxharry harryxdraco drarry slash
1. Discovery

**'Ello. As is the usual for me, this story will be dedicated to the first reviewer. This is a Draco/Harry story that starts in the fourth year of the canon. It is AU from my other dmhp story and is in no way related.**

**boyxboy, don't like don't read**

**DISCLAIMER: Own not. Claim not. Sue not. (puts pockets inside-out, moth flies out)**

**Spelling edit: 12/30/2012**

Harry's mouth gaped in a silent scream when he suddenly awoke. Sweat-drenched and still in pain, he took down the silencing charms and checked the time. _3 AM... Two hours before Oliver would come and wake me up if there was Quidditch this year- despite the fact that it's only the fourth day back..._ Harry smothered a moan in his pillow when a burst of pain arched through his spine. He felt as if the pain were increasing, but that he was being drawn away from it. The feeling disturbed him and he decided it warranted a late night visit to Madam Pomphrey. Shakily, he made his way down the stairs.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

Draco shot up into a sitting position. _What the hell just- _Looking around he saw green- everywhere- and relaxed. _I'm safe, I'm in the Snake Pit, I'm _fine_. _Draco raised a hand to brush the hair out of his face and paused. _Something's still... Not right. _Acting on a whim he wiggled his toes, then his fingers, except- _WHAT THE HELL?! WHY CAN'T I MOVE MY HAND?!_ Narrowing his eyes, as if concentration would make a difference, he tried again. The right hand worked, no problems there, but his left hand... Draco mentally groaned. It just lay there, as if it wasn't _his_ hand. Cradling the limp appendage to his chest, Draco began up the stairs out of the Snake Pit, with a sinking feeling that the paralysis wasn't content to stay in his hand.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

Harry leaned against the wall, _Just a little further. _The pain seemed to originate in his chest, but was slowly creeping outward. He attempted to push off the wall, but the answering throb of pain in his chest killed that idea swiftly.

"Need a hand?" A voice asked. Harry turned around as quickly as was possible for him, and was met with a view of Draco in his pajamas. "Oh. It's you." Draco looked over the brunette boy in front of him and decided that the pain he was going through was worse than the not-feeling Draco was currently experiencing. Draco shrugged, "The offer still stands- of the midnight maladies, you seem to have gotten the short stick, Potter."

Harry groaned and bashed his head against the wall, "Why you, Malfoy? By noon tomorrow the whole school will know, won't they?"

Draco would have some venomous comeback ready if the paralysis hadn't already made it just beneath his shoulder, "Potter, take it or leave it, I don't have the time to listen to you whine."

Harry glared, "I'm leavin' it." He pushed off from the wall with a minimum of winces and promptly collapsed to the floor.

Draco sighed and held out his good hand, allowing the other to flop listlessly at his side, "Here, Potter."

Harry had a flashback to first year but shook it away, reaching for the extended hand warily, as if afraid Draco would snatch it away at any second. "Th- Thanks, Malfoy..." The instant their hands touched, the pain in Harry's chest ceased to exist. _What the-_

Draco froze, realizing the odd tingling sensation in his left hand was not something he should be able to feel. In the midst of all this, both forgot their repulsion for the other should have made their hands part company a few minutes ago. Instead, the two of them stood there, stone-like, before turning to the other.

"Malfoy-"

"Potter-"

"Er, you go first." Harry said weakly.

Draco cleared his throat, "Right, er, Potter did whatever was ailing you sort of... Disappear just now?"

Harry nodded dazedly, "I think it has something to do with skin contact."

Draco frowned in concentration, "Perhaps we both need to have skin-to-skin contact with someone to cure us? Or at least hold whatever it is off? What was... is wrong with you?"

Harry replied, "I had a pain in my chest that was spreading and as it spread it felt like it was pushing me out of my body."

Draco's eyebrows rose, "So we obviously have different symptoms."  
"Maybe we should get to Madam Pomphrey..." Suddenly the two of them looked at them joined hands and snarled in distaste. "Quickly. So she can fix this."

"Definitely." Draco growled.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

Madam Pomphrey was proud of her calm, no-nonsense attitude and her lack of squeamish tendencies. She often said that nothing that came into her Hospital Wing, no matter how bad or how strange, would ever shock her. However, when Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy walked in holding hands- let's just say that for a few minutes, the normally brisk caretaker needed to be taken care of.

**Like it? Hate it? Tell me what's going through your mind! ...Please**


	2. Why did we even come here?

**Disclaimer: Own not. Claim not. Sue not. *screams***

**Dedicated to no one as of yet. :*(**

**Next chappie when review count is five. Just five. Yes.**

TDDUP2

Harry rushed over to Madam Pomphrey, who was collapsed across a hospital bed, "Oh, bloody hell, what do you think happened to her?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "Obviously, she fainted out of shock at the sight the two of us make, Scarhead."

Harry sighed inwardly, he had known the shock would wear off Draco eventually, but couldn't something extend it a little? "Malfoy, lay off the name-calling while we're stuck like this, please."

Draco smirked, "But it's an endearment, Scarhead." Harry glared and Draco shrugged, "However, I, too, don't feel like duking it out with you while holding hands, so we might as well call a temporary truce."

"Yeah, 'cause I'd kick your butt," Harry muttered, checking Madam Pomphrey's pulse and breathing.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Harry sat down in a chair next to the bed, "You're right, she's just in a dead faint. I guess we have to wait it out." Draco plopped down gracelessly on the chair beside Harry's. Harry looked on, amused, as Draco slumped and yawned jaw-breakingly. "Whatever happened to the Malfoy grace and poise?"

Draco snarled soundlessly before responding, "I'm tired, I was just partly paralyzed, and I have to be stuck here with _you_ to get it fixed."

Harry groaned and whacked himself in the forehead, "Late night = crabby Malfoy = immune to humor, how could I not know this?" Draco's eyes narrowed. "Okay, okay," Harry aquiesced. "How about... we check our theory?" Harry nodded to himself, "Let's try to transfer the contact to Madam Pomphrey." Draco's eyebrows rose. "I mean, we both touch her hand at the same time and see if the 'symptoms' return. I really should study more wizard diseases..." Harry muttered the last part more to himself, but Draco caught it anyway.

"Okay, on the count of three," Draco said, "One... Two... Three!" The two of them broke contact with the other and placed tentative fingers on Madam Pomphrey's hand. Harry winced as the pain returned in his chest, and Draco grit his teeth as all feeling left his arm. Both realized the pain and paralysis had started where it left off, and grabbed for each others' hand simultaneously. The symptoms stopped as soon as they made contact and both let out involuntary sighs of relief before tensing.

_What does this mean? I can't be stuck with... Malfoy!_ "Maybe... They have to be around the same age as us?" Harry suggested weakly.

_I can't have Potter trailing after me everywhere! Not only would he be a nuisance, but he'd object to nearly everything I did! Not that I'd listen, but still..._ Draco latched onto Harry's statement, "Or maybe they have to be the same gender!"

"Yeah!" Harry agreed quickly, ignoring the sweat on both his and Draco's hand. "So I can pair up with Ron and you can have Crabbe and Goyle switch off until we can find a cure..."

Draco grimaced, "Being chained to those two would be almost as bad as being stuck with _you_."

Harry frowned, deciding not to take notice of the insult, "I thought they were your friends."

"Henchmen, back up- allies, even- but never friends," Draco elaborated, "I'd rather be attached by the hip to a trash can. No, I'd ask Blaise or Nott."

Harry leaned back in the chair, "_Blaise_ huh? You two close?"

Draco rolled his eyes and drawled, "Maybe we are, I don't see how it's any business of yours."

Harry held up his hands placatingly (one still firmly attatched to Draco's paler, larger hand), "Hey, sorry, just trying to make conversation." Draco snorted and the two sat in uncomfortable silence until Madam Pomphrey came to.

Their first sign she was awake was when she shot straight out of bed into a standing position, "I had the strangest-" Turning she noticed the two boys and Harry waved his free hand weakly while Draco sneered.

"Hello? Patients in need of immediate help? I'm not holding his hand for my enjoyment, here!"

Madam Pomphrey bristled at the boy's impertinent tone but asked, "And what seems to be the problem Misters Potter and Malfoy? A sticking charm gone wrong?"

Harry shook his head and Draco continued, "We seem to have curses or a disease or something that only affects us as long as we do not have skin-to-skin contact with... We think it's either someone of the same gender or around the same age..."

Madam Pomphrey's irritated expression disappeared, and she leaned over their linked hands, performing a status charm, "And what are the symptoms?"

Harry glanced uneasily at the door and Draco tightened the grip on Harry's hand, narrowing his eyes. Harry reluctantly tore his gaze from the door and fixed his gaze on Madam Pomphrey's bright, inquisitive eyes. "Well, I get a pain in my chest and as it spreads, I feel more and more, er... Distant, like the pain is pushing me out of my own body."

Draco took over before Harry had time to draw breath, "And I have a paralysis that started in my left hand and crept up as time went on. Both our... symptoms don't 'restart' when we let go, they continue where they left off. It's like pressing pause." Both Madam Pomphrey and Harry blinked at the muggle reference and Draco shrugged uncomfortably.

Madam Pomphrey shook off the vague shock and amusement and returned to the task at hand. "Well, then, we'll just have to test your theory."

Both Harry and Draco looked at the nurse with dawning horror, "You don't know what we have?!"

The medi-witch twinkled at them and shot them a smile. "Nope."

* * *

**Oh, yay. Ya know, that's JUST what you want to hear in this situation... :D**


	3. Lots of Shock And Missing Plots

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not owned by me... But by Draco Malfoy.**

**Harry: I AM NOT A POSSESSION!**

**Draco: When did _that _change?**

**Harry: DRACO!**

**Draco *blinks* No, seriously.**

**Right then, *ahem* DEDICATION ALERT!**

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel. YAY!**

Harry let himself slide onto the floor in despair, inevitably causing Draco to yank him back into his chair. Harry glared at the blonde, "Can't I melt into a puddle of desolation and depression without you interrupting it?"

Draco snapped, "Not when you're attatched to _me,_ Potter."

"Right, right..." Ignoring Draco's comment he continued to melt.

"Dammit, Potter!" Draco shoved the boy wonder back into his chair and sat on him.

"My arm!" Harry moaned, "Your heaviness is crushing it!"

"THEN STAY IN YOUR CHAIR! AND I AM _NOT_ FAT!" Harry pushed him off, but Draco just dragged him down and flipped the two of them over so Harry was on the bottom.

"You are _totally _fat."

Draco grit his teeth, "_No_, I am _not_."

"_Yes, _you _are_."

"_NO, _I am _not._"

"Are, too."

"Am not."

"Are too!"

"Am-" Draco's face blanked, and one pale eyebrow rose above the other, "Did you do that just to distract me?"

Harry scrunched up his nose, "My acting isn't _that_ rusty, is it?"

For a few moments, there was silence. Out of the blue, Draco started to laugh.

"Malfoy?" _Maybe the 'contact' thing just rots minds. _Harry looked at the slightly older boy dubiously. "Are you... alright?"

Draco let his body fall on Harry's from the position of a full two inches up in his laughter, "You... are such... an idiot!"

Harry bristled, "Well, I'm sorry that I'm not getting what's so funny but that doesn't mean I'm an idio-"

"No," Draco's laughter trickled down, but an amused smirk played on his lips, "That's not it, Potter. Here you are, chained to your worst- okay second worst enemy, because if you stop touching, then you'll most likely both die, and it's possible it could be a life-long schtick, and you're trying to cheer _me _up? You're the frickin' Golden Boy and I'm the bloody Death Eater spawn. Oh God, H- Potter. Assosciating with us Dark and evil people? You're going to rot in hell!"

Harry opened his mouth to respond but stopped- frowning. "Did you just almost call me Harry?"

Draco paused for a moment, all cheer wiped from his face. "No, it was... A horrible nickname that in honor of our truce I changed to your last name at the very last moment." Draco rolled off Harry and pulled him up so Draco could sit down. "That's it."

Harry nodded, letting him off the hook just this once, but for now... "So... What's up in your life, Draco?"

Draco was just about to respond when he realized something, "Did you just-"

"Yeah." Harry interrupted, and shrugged, "Since we're going to be stuck together I thought might as well. Also because if I hadn't mangled the way I responded to your introduction in first year we might've been friends."

Draco blinked at this strange creature in front of him that spoke logically. "Who are you and what have you done with Harry Potter?"

Harry attempted to cross his arms but gave up. "Are you saying I can't be logical?"

"Yes," Draco answered bluntly. "For you it's always been black and white, good and evil, right and wrong, Dark and Light. There's never been any shades of gray in _your_ world."

"Tact, my dear Draco, is something I would not normally say you lack, but today you wound me greatly with your frankness." Draco stared at Harry as if he'd grown a second head. "I'm- joking? Being funny? Hah?" Draco did not blink. "You're creeping me out here."

Draco shook his head and rubbed his temple with one hand. "Harry Potter has been replaced by a Pod Person. Harry Potter has been replaced by a Pod Person. Harry Potter has been replaced by a Pod Person. Yes. Yes! _This_ is the only possible solution." Draco opened his eyes and patted Harry on the shoulder. "Well, Pod Person, nice to meet you, I'm very glad you chose Potter to replace because frankly, I don't think the world could handle his 'adventures' for much longer." Harry glared. "Yes, it sure will help the Dark Lord, huh? His agenda. You know, torturing muggles, being all hypocritical, wreaking his vengeance for some unknown reason upon the world." Here, Draco cackled maniacally and Harry wondered if the stress was getting to him. "Yes, all is well now that Harry Potter no longer exists, and I can live my sordid, unlawful life in peace."

"M-Draco, are you aware of something known as split personality disorder? Because I think you have it. Or are you on drugs? Are you drugged, Draco? Are you high? Or are you drunk? I never thought you'd be a pleasant drunk but I'd be pleased to be wrong."

Draco sneered, "I don't do drugs. And we're fourteen, Potter, I would at least wait until I was sixteen before sneaking an illegal firewhisky."

"Again, split personality disorder?"

Draco sighed, "Listen. Just because you are used to having your life in danger, not knowing why, and discovering your rival has not only a brain but a pretty nice personality, does not mean it is not stressful and confusing for those around you, understood?" Harry looked rather bewildered and Draco assumed he had lost him on "Listen." "Nevermind, let's just wait for Madam Pomphrey."

Luckily, at that point Madam Pomphrey _bustled_ in with Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Ron, Hermione, and Blaise in tow. Quite a convention, if I do say so myself. Needless to say, Ron's jaw dropped and his ears turned red, Hermione blinked rapidly upon seeing Harry and Draco- as if blinded by a bright light, and Blaise just laughed. Snape's face scrunched up completely in disgust and Draco sneered at the room in general before turning to Madam Pomphrey- ignoring Dumbledore's twinkle and McGonagall's confusion.

"So, are we the new exhibit at the 'Odd Diseases and Maladies Convention?'" Draco asked scathingly, "Or is there a point to the multitude of normally useless people?" Harry rolled his eyes, suddenly too tired to bother. The adrenaline rush from fighting with and provoking Draco was wearing off. It was much the same as deciding to go on the roller coaster _without_ your seatbelt- and just as lethal.

"H-harry, mate, I dunno if you know, but, I mean, you're holding hands with Draco bloody Malfoy!" Ron exclaimed.

"Nice middle name, I think I'll keep it," Draco commented.

"Yeah, Ron, I know. It's a long story." Harry responded wearily, ignoring Draco's remark. Madam Pomphrey sighed and bustled over to her office.

Hermione blushed out of the blue, "Oh... _OH._ Harry, are you... gay?"

Harry blinked, "Actually, yeah I am. Why?"

"Are... Are you going out with Malfo- Draco?" Harry started to respond but Hermione cut him off, "Because I think you might be making a mistake if you are, Harry, don't you remember all those horrible things he's done to us?"

"Hermione."

"All those times he's called your mother and I mudbloods?"

"HERMIONE."

"All those times he's taunted you, Ron, Hagrid and I, those times he waved his father's money in people's faces and-"

"HERMIONE!" Hermione finally stopped in her rant, and Harry decided the undeserved rant required payback. "Yes, Hermione. Draco and I are madly in love and have been hiding it since second year, when we met in the Chamber of Secrets and accidentally got married using an ancient blood ritual, and discovered a potion that will allow me to bear children, and we're going to make the marriage legal and have lots and lots of babies and live in Malfoy Manor and teach our children the Cruciatus curse so they can be successful Death Eaters and- NO! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? WE AREN'T TOGETHER!"

The entire crowd of people, including Draco, had looked more and more shocked (confused in Draco's case) as the dialogue went on- and the sudden end set their heads spinning. Draco turned to Harry, and Harry, expecting confusion, decided to humor him. "So... You just admitted you're the woman in a relationship."

Harry's mouth dropped. "That's all you got out of that entire rant? That I'm gay and submissive?"

Draco shrugged, "Pretty much. I grew up with sarcasm and I can sense when it's being spoken."

Harry almost laughed, "Your Spidey senses leave much to be desired."

Draco was about to retort when- "Wait, what?"

Madam Pomphrey bustled out of her office and past the frozen crowd, "Now then, to answer your previous question, Mr. Malfoy, the Headmaster and your Heads of House are here for observation, while Ms. Granger and Mr. Ron are here to test your theory, and Mr. Zabini simply followed me here like a puppy." She looked up and saw the state of the uninformed volunteers. "Oh, dear, is the Chamber open again?"

Draco actually grinned, "No, Harry displayed his 'inner Slytherin' and shocked them all into petrification."

Obviously, it was meant to be a barbed comment, but Harry honestly didn't care anymore. "You know, the Sorting Hat almost put me in Slytherin, Draco." Funny how changing what you call someone changes the way you see them, huh?

Draco joined the crowd in expression.

"Time to get to work." Madam Pomphrey clapped her hands together. "Now then, SNAP OUT OF IT!" The entire room shook itself awake and Madam Pomphrey nodded in approval. "Alright, first, Hermione, come here." Hermione hesitantly stood in front of the two boys. "Now extend your hands." Again, Hermione obeyed. "Now, boys, on the count of three, I want you to transfer the contact. One, two... THREE!" Harry and Draco let go of each other's hands and both clasped one of Hermone's. Immediately, both boys gasped- Harry clutched his chest, and Draco's arm went limp. The same result occurred with both Ron and Blaise.

At this point Draco's paraslysis was creeping up his neck and down his side and Harry's pain covered the top half of his stomach and all of his shoulders. Harry literally grabbed Draco in something reminiscent to a hug after the last transfer, and, surprisingly, Draco did not reprimand him, but instead put a hand on his arm. Both were breathing heavily and sweat beaded on their foreheads.

"Hey," Harry rasped, "Maybe we hold off on the testing for a while?"

Madam Pomphrey frowned at her clipboard, "No need. The castle cross-referenced the different reactions, magical auras and spikes when you temporarily lost contact and when-" Looking up, she saw two baffled patients and rephrased, "Let's just say the castle told me that this... Disease each of you have can only be stopped by the other and is in fact, one illness. However it ran out of strength to speak and could not tell me the name. However, it did manage to inform me that there is no known cure." Harry suddenly slumped against Draco and Draco looked down at the boy on his chest. Checking his face, Draco came to a conclusion.

"Harry has just fainted of shock."

* * *

Review, per favore! (not spanish, so NOT a TYPO!)


	4. Where's My Bashing Pan?

**I apologize for the shortness, but I will probably have yet another chapter out today anyway.**

**Thanks to reviewers and everyone who read the story!!!! Remember- even flames are appreciated by me!**

**Dedicated to: Non Innocent Angel.**

**Disclaimer: there's really no need for a disclaimer if I own it, so I think it should be enough in itself. XD I don't own Harry. D*:**

Draco nudged the unresponsive boy on his chest and sighed, turning back to Pomphrey, "And you're sure there's no one else who could do the same thing?"

Madam Pomphrey shook her head. "But other than that, you're physically fine- except when you let go of each other."

Harry slowly came to. "Wha- Who-" Realizing whose chest he was on, Harry jerked back, before jerking forward again so that he didn't fall and gripping Draco's shoulder tightly. Harry ran a hand through his hair and said weakly, "Right. Nevermind." Draco patted Harry's hand awkwardly and Harry rolled his eyes. "Nice try."

"Right, well then, you two can just go on with your lives until we find another solution." Madam Pomphrey smiled.

Draco seemed to develop a twitch and Harry just gaped at the cheery nurse.

Hermione frowned, "Harry can't _possibly_ be trapped with _Malfoy_, he'd likely kill him in his sleep! Harry's too important to the Light to be put into this dangerous situation!"

Both Harry and Draco turned towards Hermione. "Important?"

Harry continued where the two of them had left off after shooting the blonde a glare. "How am I _important_ to the Light? I'm just a 'figurehead.' Though you do bring up a good point..." He glanced warily at Draco and the Slytherin sighed in exasperation.

"Er, I- by 'important to the Light' I meant important as in we all care for you, and we can't let you be chained to this- this Malfoy!" Hermione had started out stumbling over her words but she regained her anger by the end of the sentence. "It's not safe!"

Madam Pomphrey put a calm hand on Harry's shoulder. "Ms. Granger, I assure you, Mr. Potter will be safe- after all, Mr. Malfoy isn't likely to kill the only thing keeping him from becoming a human statue, right? Also, their magical signatures are part of this, if one of them dies, the disease or curse they have will come back fully." She grinned at Harry and Draco, "Isn't it nice to know you're safe?"

Harry said, completely deadpan, "Safe because I can't let go of one of the three guys who've managed to get me to wish for their deaths on every major holiday ("No offense, Malfoy." "None taken, I've thought the same thing.") and he can't kill me because he literally, 'needs me alive.'" Harry closed his eyes, as if in pain and Draco and Madam Pomphrey called out,

"Don't pass out again!"

Though Draco seemed a bit more angered than the concerned nurse.

"I'm not!" Harry shot back just a little too slowly.

"Like hell." Draco muttered. He continued at a normal volume, "Not that my chest isn't comfortable and all, Potter, but I don't think either of us want you to end up there _again_."

Harry blushed and sat up straight, slipping his hand down Draco's arm to his wrist for a less 'personal' hold. "Right."

Ron looked about ready to pass out himself. "Sorry, Harry, but I think I need to leave the room for a while..." Hermione appeared to apparate to his side.

"I completely understand," She replied soothingly, as if Harry's opinion would be her own.

"Er, bye?" Harry said as they left, not looking back.

"I'm gonna- yeah." Blaise left almost as quickly.

Dumbledore nodded solemnly, the twinkle in his eyes toned down. "I believe we'll have to arrange separate sleeping quarters as both Houses would object to one or the other of you."

Draco's eyebrow rose in silent question.

Madam Pomphrey clapped her hands. "Why not use the Room of Requirement, Albus?"

Dumbledore blinked, "Pardon me?"

Poppy paused, seeing all eyes on her. "Er, does no one else know about this?"

Draco nodded impatiently as the rest of the room affirmed her suspicion.

"Oh." She grinned, "I know more about Hogwarts than you do, Albus."

Dumbledore chuckled, "And what is this room?"  
"I think you've come across it once, I _know_ the Weasley twins have-" She shook her head disapprovingly, "It's a room that can produce exactly what you need at the moment you enter it. You simply must walk back and forth three times in front of its door- or rather the wall where the door will be- thinking of what you need, and it appears!" Madam Pomphrey gestured wildly and excitedly throughout her explanation, accenting her last word by throwing her hands up in the air briefly.

"Where is it?" Draco asked quickly.

"Mnn, I forget."

Everyone in the room suddenly felt that unpleasant urge to smack the elderly witch over the head with something heavy that nearly all close aquantices of Poppy Pomphrey have felt at one point or another.

* * *


	5. Purple' and 'Dumbledore, Why'

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel- yaaaay!**

**Disclaimer: Now then, if I have included a disclaimer at all, doesn't that tell you exactly what you need to know? Own no Harry. Claim no Harry. Sue no Kitty.**

**Yay! Another chapter as I put off rewriting SMH and doing another chapter of annotations in a different book! Wait... I'm done with _this_ chapter... *Great Expectations flaps onto my head like a bat* NOOOOO!**

Harry was the first to regain control and asked calmly, if through gritted teeth, "Can you _show_ us?"

Madam Pomphrey smiled, "Of course! Follow me!" She bustled from the room and Harry dragged Draco after her, leaving three recovering teachers behind them. Snape was twitching and McGonagall was wringing her hands as if longing to strangle the head nurse. Dumbledore shook his head rapidly to clear it of its haze.

"Right then, off we go!" His eyes twinkled merrily as he strolled after the two students.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

"And now!" Madam Pomphrey exclaimed as a door appeared in the wall she had been pacing in front of.

She opened the plain door to a room remarkably like the Gryffindor Common Room- except for the color scheme being purple. Lilac coated the walls and the floors were a deep burgandy, with couches of light mauve.

Harry froze, "It's like being smothered by lilacs." Draco nodded mutely.

Madam Pomphrey frowned, erasing the proud look, "The color scheme doesn't matter! Just get in!" She shooed the two into the room and was about to leave with Dumbledore when Draco spoke up.

"Wait- what about our classes?"

Dumbledore paused at the threshhold and turned to face the two boys cheerily (because it's possible to turn cheerily if you're Albus Dumbledore) . "You're lucky it's still the first week! Luckily, you signed up for the same classes other than Divination and Arithmancy, so you need to decide which you will be taking."

Both boys looked vaguely nauseated at the fact that they'd chosen the same classes unintentionally.

"I'll give up Divination, I think I can do without Professor Trelawny predicting my death every ten minutes." Harry put forward, "I just took that class because I had an empty slot."

Draco smirked, which Harry took to be an expression of happiness at keeping his class and not gloating about Harry's predicted deaths- in the spirit of sticking to their truce.

"Very well, Harry, I'll inform your Heads of Houses." He smiled and walked away.

As soon as the door shut, Harry's brave front collapsed and Draco was shocked to see how weary the golden boy looked. He turned to Draco.

"So, I won't fight with you or insult your friends if you do the same for me- if just because we may need to be together-" Harry winced, "-forever."

Draco groaned as the implications sunk in and sat heavily on one of the mauve couches.

Harry for some reason squeezed his eyes shut.

"What the-" Draco exclaimed as a packed bookcase replaced the coffee table that had been in front of the couch.

Harry's eyes widened slightly and a small smile made its way to his face, "Wicked."

"What was that?"

Harry plopped himself down as far from Draco as it was possible to be while holding his wrist. He carefully pried a book from its shelf with his free hand and opened it on his lap. "I thought about what I 'needed' to combat boredom, and the room supplied it."

Draco blinked. "Mind if I take a book?"

Harry gestured vaguely in what Draco believed was agreement, not looking up from the page.

Draco selected a book at random and was about halfway through the first page when he realized he had just asked Potter for permission to do something. He ground his teeth together, but continued to read. _Never thought Potter would include Potions books in his wish..._

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

Meanwhile, Ron had returned to the Hospital Wing only to find it completely empty. He stepped forward hesitantly- before stomping his foot. "Why am I always left behind!"

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

Harry closed his book with a sigh- it was around two AM and he knew he couldn't avoid it forever. _Maybe if I cast a Silencing Charm on myself? But he'd notice, wouldn't he? Well, what if I say it's to help me sleep? No..._ Draco had looked up at Harry's sigh and closed his own book- a potions text, Harry noted, not really surprised at his choice. "Er, maybe we should go to sleep?" Harry's statement morphed into a question as it left his mouth.

Draco shrugged one shoulder, "I guess, if you're tired."

"I'm not tired, I just thought that maybe we should get some sleep so we don't get it tomorrow in class!"

To Harry's surprise Draco just shrugged again. "Fine, you're not tired, let's just go to bed."

Harry silently allowed Draco to lead him to the only other door in the room, besides the exit, and realized they were once again holding hands, instead of just gripping the other's wrist awkwardly. _Then again, this should be a bit _more_ awkward..._ Despite the thought, it annoyed Harry how well their hands _did_ fit together. _It's _great_ that my hated rival just so _happens _to have the perfect fit to my own hand isn't it?_ Harry took this as Fate throwing another sign they were always meant to impact the other's life heavily. Negatively. _I'm holding hands with Malfoy. Ew-ew-ew-ew-ew-ew-ew-ew-ew-ew! _Harry stopped his train of thought and _gently_ shoved it down another track. _So, silencing charms, or have Malfoy discover Potty's little nightmares?_ Harry restrained the impulse to nod to himself. _Silencing charms._

"-tter? Potter! Anyone home in there?" Draco's voice snapped him out of his daze.

"What?"

"Damn it, Potter, we've been standing here for almost a minute. Have a nice time in La-la-land?" Draco snarled, obviously grouchy.

"Well, _someone's_ cranky." Harry remarked, taking in the (also purple) bedroom. "Should we tie our hands together?"

It was Draco's turn to be confused. "What?"  
"Well, Malfoy, people move in their sleep, _right_? If we let go, then we could pass away in our sleep without anyone knowing a thing." Harry explained, a bit proud to have thought of something before the cunning blonde.

Malfoy rolled his eyes, "Little chance of _that _happening, the bed's almost a _single_."

It was true, the bed would probably fit the two of them on their backs, but just barely.

"Well, what if we both were on our sides and rolled to opposite ends of the bed?"

Draco seemed reluctant to admit defeat, "But what if we _did _roll around with our hands _tied together_? We'd end up in some pretty painful positions." **(1)**

"Think Malfoy, possible pain, or possible death?"

"...Technically, I wouldn't die, I would just sort of freeze."

"Shut up and let me tie our hands together."

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

Harry woke up to an irritating buzz in his ears. He nuzzled into his pillow in annoyance and the buzz paused momentarily before returning at full strength- perhaps louder.

Harry frowned as the buzz slowly became words.

"-ter I am _not_ your fucking pillow! And if you're awake I am going to _kill_ you later on! In fact, if you hadn't hidden my wand I'd-"

Oh that's right. Malfoy was there.

Wait- Malfoy?

"-and you know what else? You kept twisting my arm-"

"Oh shit."

"That's right Potter! Now get _off_!" Draco shoved Harry off the bed and himself with a vicious shove.

"Ow, be nice! Are you always this crabby in the morning?" Harry rubbed his sore back and Draco got up- forcing Harry up with him.

"No, I wake up _every _morning with Harry-bloody-Potter _cuddling_ me after a long night when he's _stolen my wand_ and I can't kill him because I'd _die_!" Draco snarked, not in a good mood and clearly not completely awake.

"Okay, now getting dressed will be the major obstacle this morning." Harry remarked, ignoring Draco's ranting. "And will also probably be the oddest and most embarrassing moment of my life. Every single day. Huh..."

Draco paused in his rant. "...Shit... You're right."

Harry blinked, "You're _obviously_ half asleep, to agree with me."

"Oh shut up, let's just try and figure this out." Draco and Harry looked at each other, unsure where to start.

"This is going to be a long day, isn't it?" Harry began to unbutton his shirt, not looking up at Draco.

Draco winced when their tied hands bent awkwardly but regained his composure almost immediately. "You have no idea."

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

Harry and Draco lingered outside the Great Hall- not awkwardly as one might imagine, but in a fullblown arguement.

"In Gryffindor, at least neither of us would fear _poisoning_!" Harry exclaimed.

"In Slytherin, at least they'd have the sense to keep the commotion down!" Draco retorted.

"The Slytherins all hate me!"

"The Gryffindors all want to kill me!"

The two of them glared at each other intensely for a full minute.

The boys had managed the long and intricate process of getting dressed by randomly switching the 'contact point' whenever they needed to put something else on or off. At one of the odder times, Harry was holding Draco's foot as Draco tied his other shoe.

After getting dressed they had headed off to breakfast, where they could _not_ agree on which House to sit with.

"The Slytherins would try to kill us- or at least me- and they'd probably get away with it!"

"Well, the Gryffindors would chase me through the halls in an angry mob, thinking I'd corrupted their savior! And you'd have to come with me!" Seeing Harry was not convinced he added silkily, "They'd also probably try to separate us, believing that there was a Dark curse controlling you that needed physical contact."

Harry paled as the hidden meaning sunk in. "I like snakes, let's go sit at the Slytherin table."

Draco smirked, "Fine by me, Potter, fine by me."

As they walked into the Great Hall a hush descended upon those close enough to see, and spread quickly throughout the rest of the room.

Harry appeared to be having second thoughts about sitting with the Slytherins, and he waved weakly at Ron and Hermione before being dragged off by a suddenly cheerful Malfoy. So cheerful, in fact, was this Slytherin, that he gave a jaunty wave to the Gryffindor table- and half collapsed in shock. Harry sulked beside him.

"And why are _you_ so happy?" He ground out between his teeth.

"Because you're Harry Potter." Draco responded with a smirk.

"And what does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm responsible for _the _Harry _Potter_, scion of the Light, symbol of the anti-Voldemort organizations, sitting with the so-called Death-Eaters-in-training." Harry realized Draco's teeth looked remarkably like a shark's at that moment, despite his omnivorous tendencies.

Several Slytherins smirked, understanding Draco's malicious glee, though not understanding how it was possible. The rest just murmured quietly in confusion, and Blaise glared at his plate.

"So what brings you to our table, Potty?" Parkinson cooed cloyingly.

Harry fixed her with a blank stare, "I would think that was obvious. _Malfoy_ did that." Only the twitching of Harry's hand in Draco's gave away his imense discomfort.

Nott grinned in a way Harry did _not_like at _all_. "So, _Drakie, _is Potter good in bed? Do you have a Gryffindor fetish-"

"WE ARE _NOT_ TOGETHER!" The combined shouts echoed throughout the Great Hall and several goblets shattered. The non-injured students quickly turned back to their meals, while the others left the Hall to pay a somewhat lengthy visit to the Hospital Wing.

Draco sneered disdainfully, "You're such a pervert, Theodore."

"You were _holding hands_, Drake-Drake, what was I supposed to think?" Nott whined.

"Certainly not that we were _shagg_-"

"Please stop..." Harry put in faintly, his face blank.

Draco paused. "Point taken." He then turned to his House mates with an air of gravity. "Listen up, Potter and I are stuck with each other because of some horrible, _non-contagious_ disease, so we've called a truce for the time being." Harry nodded when they glanced at him and Blaise glared at his plate as it were the source of all things evil and disgusting.

Parkinson simpered her sympathies and Nott snorted into his pumpkin juice. As Draco became involved with the conversation (Harry snorted internally), Harry glanced around the room, zeroing in on the facial expressions sent his way.

A few Hufflepuffs looked at him with pity, but most of the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables appeared to minding their own business- for which Harry was eternally grateful- except for a few Ravenclaws who appeared to be taking _notes_ on their behavior. Harry shook his head and moved his gaze hesitantly to the table whose reaction he feared the most.

Half the Gryffindors were trying to catch his eye and mouth, "What's going on?" while a quarter stared at him in disbelief and... Betrayal? Harry winced, deciding to explain what was going on to them as quickly as possible. The last quarter, which included Ron, Hermione, and Seamus, were steadfastly ignoring him. Harry frowned, _Ron and Hermione _know_ what's happened, so why would they...?_ Harry turned back to the Slytherin table, determined to ask them in the first class they had together.

"Mr. Malfoy, Potter, here is your timetable. We alternated your classes between Gryffindor and Slytherin, so neither side felt... Biased against..." Snape snarled, obviously upset with this turn of events.

"Of course not, Professor," Harry returned tiredly, snatching the schedule, "Thank you, sir, we wouldn't want to take up any more of your _precious_ time."

Snape threw a sneer at Harry and nodded curtly to Draco before heading back to the Head Table.

Harry glanced over the schedule for today and handed it over to Draco. _I have to wait through Hufflepuff-Slytherin potions, but that's it, and I can explain in History of Magic._

Draco folded the time table with amazing dexterity for only using his left hand and stuck it into his pocket. "I won't be having Charms with you today, I'll be with the Gryffindors in History of Magic," he informed Parkinson, Nott, and Blaise, "But I've still got Potions and DADA with you guys."

Parkinson smirked, "So while we work on our charmwork, you'll be snoring away in the most boring class in Hogwarts?"

Draco countered, "No, you'll be working, I'll be slacking."

Nott clapped him on the shoulder, "Nice to know your work ethic is so high."

Harry let his forehead sink to the table and decided it would be a nice position to spend the rest of breakfast in.

"May I have everyone's attention?" Harry's head snapped back up when Dumbledore's voice addressed the crowd. "There will be no Quidditch this year due to certain activities that will be taking place." Immediate booing followed his words, and the Weasley twins stood and shouted simultaneously,

"NO QUIDDITCH, NO REPRIEVE!"

The staff paled at the blatant threat of never-ending pranks and Dumbledore cleared his throat, silencing the unruly students. "We will instead be hosting what we hope to make annual, the Tri-Wizard Tournament!"

Nearly the entire Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables sucked in their breath, while most of the Gryffindors seemed confused and the Hufflepuffs resigned.

"Beuxbeautans**(2)** and Durmstrang will be arriving in a week's time, and our three champions will be chosen!" A few students chattered excitedly. "The winner of the Tri-Wizard Tournament will bring glory to their school, and win a handsome cash prize. However, you must be of age or older to enter your name! I will make sure of this myself!" Various calls of dissent rang through the Hall, but Dumbledore raised a hand for silence that was promptly given, "This is for your own safety. The Tri-Wizard Champions will be under a magical contract and will not be able to quit the Tournament or leave the grounds until the contest is over." Dumbledore suddenly twinkled in the direction of the Slytherins, "On an entirely different note, some of you may have noticed the recent addition to the Slytherin table." Heads swiveled and Harry attempted to hide behind Draco. Dumbledore's voice grew serious. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy have an affliction that forces them to remain in contact, and anyone who attempts to separate them will be facing the removal of thirty house points and a week's detention with Filch- for if your attempt _succeeds_," He paused, and the attention was riveted on him once more, "They will both surely die."

Parts of the Gryffindor table stood up in disbelief and Slytherin stared at the two boys in shock. The Ravenclaws scribbled excitedly on their notepads and the Hufflepuffs directed their most sympathetic and heartfelt looks over to the two Fourth Years.

Harry seemed to shrink in his effort to dissappear but Draco just rolled his eyes and finished up his toast.

* * *

**(1) It's true. Having your hands tied together can make you end up with your arm twisted really awkwardly when you wake up. **

**(2) HOW DO YOU SPELL THIS??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

* * *


	6. The Fundamental Law of the Universe

**Hey, hey, hey, I made a new HP story!!! *beams* And I updated Shake My Hand! Check 'em out! *bounces childishly***

**Thankee to all who reviewed, you fed the plot bunnies so much! *tears up***

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel, a walking, talking, typing conundrum. XD**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry! *sobs dramatically* Not even one fingernail! Though I have dibs on his big toe...**

**Thanks goes out to the many people who corrected my spelling! :D**

"I'm just going to _die_ of mortification, aren't I?" Harry muttered to himself as he and Draco walked to their third class holding hands.

Draco smirked, apparently enjoying Harry's misery. "Buck up, where's your Gryffindork courage?"

Harry sighed, "Embarrassment and fear are different things, Malfoy. Why are you always so happy?"

Draco's eyebrows rose, "Do I truly need to spell it out for you, Potter?"

"No... Is there some fundamental rule of the universe that says we can't be happy at the same time or something? Because as far as I know we haven't..." Harry mused aloud.

Draco snorted, "I was happy before I met you, weren't you?"

"Not really..." Harry responded absent-mindedly.

Draco blinked. _Is he even hearing what he's saying?_

Harry perked up as soon as the doorway to History of Magic was in his sights. "We're here!"

Conversely, and possibly proving Harry's theory correct, Draco's good mood dissappeared, and he grumbled under his breath as Harry dragged him along.

Surprisingly, most of Gryffindor was already there, and Ron and Hermione seemed to be in some sort of fight. Hermione was sitting next to Lavender Brown with her arms crossed and hissing something at Ron that made his ears turn red as his face twisted between anger and confusion. He whirled around and paused mid-stomp.

Emotions swept across his face in a storm before settling on 'happiness.' "Harry! Thought we wouldn't see you all day! C'mon, we'll sit in the back!"

Ignoring Draco's mumbled, "I'd rather sit with the mudblood," Harry followed Ron to a table and sat beside him.

"I have Charms with you after lunch, so I'll see you then, too," Harry informed Ron.

Ron grinned, "Wicked! I need help with my Color-Changing charm!"

Draco, who had sat down heavily on Harry's other side, asked in a disinterested tone, "Why not ask your girlfriend for help?" He flicked a piece of lint off his wand as Binns started his lesson.

Ron blushed, "Hermione is not my girlfriend, and we're er-" He looked down, "not speaking right now."

"Yeah, what _were_ you two fighting about?" Harry asked.

If possible, Ron's hair and skin matched in colors momentarily. "I dunno how to tell you this, mate..." He hesitated, then locked gazes with the brunette, "She thinks you're under a spell, and she found one that fit, and when the person under that particular curse is removed from all friendly influences, the curse sometimes breaks. Or at least," Ron admitted, "That's what 'Mione said."

"Well, we might just _be_ under a spell, but I just know she thinks Malfoy caused it." Harry said darkly, "And I bet you she tries to separate us before the week is up."

Ron cast a sidelong glance at Draco, "Do _you _think he did it?"

"I'm _right here,_ for God's sa-" Draco started, infuriated.

Harry cut in firmly, "No. This inconveniences him as much as it does me."

Ron nodded, accepting Harry's opinion. A thought seemed to occur to him and he blushed. "Er, speaking of inconveniences, what do you two do when er- one of you has to go to the bathroom?"

Draco's eyebrow rose.

Harry seemed a little flustered, but managed to explain. "When- Well, one of us just puts a hand on the other's neck, and that person just goes to the bathroom normally."

Ron overcame his embarrassment and let his curiousity take over, "Same for showers?"

Harry blinked, "Yeah, I guess so. Haven't take a shower yet."

"So, what about when you go to sleep? Do you tie your hands together? Wouldn't that be uncomfortable to have your hands hanging over open air?"

Harry's brow furrowed, "Yeah, we tied our hands together," (Draco mumbled, "Dumb minds think alike.") "But what do you mean about 'over open air?'"

Ron rolled his eyes, "Honestly, Harry, when you tie two people's hands together who are in two different beds, your arms would be extended out over nothing but air." Seeing Harry's expression he added, "Unless there's a table or something between you two."

"I'm surprised your logic actually goes _that_ far," Draco put in.

"Shut _up_, Malfoy, I was quiet when you were talking with _your_ friends." Harry wasn't really all that upset with Malfoy's interruption, but he wanted to delay the inevitable.

"I'm a _Slytherin_, I don't _do_ fair, Potty."

"Call me names and you'll wake up with a face full of _Petrificus Totalus_." Harry threatened. "Right _now_, we're still in a truce." Draco scowled but remained silent.

Ron glanced between them uneasily, "It can't be... You'd have killed each other..." He turned his gaze on Harry. "You didn't sleep in the _same _bed, did you?"

Harry paused, "I, er-"

Ron began to laugh uproarously.

"Mister Weasley! Cease your unseemly merriment this _instant_!" Binns exclaimed. Ron's unsuccessful attempt to stop laughing seemed to send the ghost into a fit. "THE GOBLIN REBELLION OF '52 IS _NOT_ AN AMUSING SUBJECT, MR. WEASLEY! WiLL YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT YOU ARE LAUGHING AT?!"  
"I- I-" Ron dissolved into laughter.

Draco rolled his eyes and calmly twisted the truth. "He finds it hilarious that Potter and I could share a room without killing each other."

Binns' transparent eyes narrowed, "Mr. Weasley, House prejudice has been going on since _my_ time as a student, it is a thing to be celebrated when two students from Gryffindor and Slytherin get along, not _mocked_."

Ron blinked, sobering, "Professor, I wasn't-"

"Ah." Professor Binns cut him off with a hand, "You will be eating lunch in here for your detention."

"WHAT?!" Harry and Ron rose as one.

Binns fixed Harry with a disapproving eye, "Just because it doesn't bother you when your friends make fun of you, does not mean I can allow it to go unpunished."

Harry and Ron sat down with their mouths gaping as Binns resumed his monologue and the students around them returned to their previous stupor.

"That's a first," Draco mused, "Binns never assigns punishments."

Ron shot Draco a dirty look. "Shut it, Malfoy."

Draco's eyes flashed, "I don't take orders from _blood traitors_."

Ron leaned around Harry. "Don't make me make you!"

Draco did the same. "Eloquent, _Weasel_."

"Both of you shut up!" Harry whisper-shouted, **(1)** pulling Draco and Ron back into their seats. He glared at the two of them, and turned to Draco first, expecting him to be the hardest to persuade, "Malfoy, we have a _truce_, remember? We don't insult each other, or the other's friends for as long as we're stuck together!" To his surprise Draco grunted in affirmation and leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. Harry blinked before turning on Ron, "And don't let him get you riled up! Could you at least argue _politely_ with him? For example, you could say something other than 'shut it' when you don't want to hear what Ma- _Draco_," He stressed the name, having forgotten his previous conversation in the Hospital Wing until that moment, "is saying."

Ron groaned, "Do I have to call him 'Draco' too?"

Harry rolled his eyes, inwardly relieved that there wasn't going to be a brawl when he was literally attached to one of the opponents. "No, Ron."

"Please don't," Draco added curtly.

Ron gave Draco the evil eye. "After you and Harry are cured, this is over and I'm opening up a can of whoop-ass on you."

"You're welcome to _try_," Draco drawled and Harry sighed.

"We already fight enough, Ron, I really don't need you to make it worse."

"It's okay Harry, the ferret understands it's all friendly." Ron glared at the blonde.

"That's right, Potte- Harry, the weasel and I will probably be the best of friends by the week's end." Draco scowled right back at Ron.

Harry let his head fall to his textbook with a bang. "I'm surrounded by _rodents_!"

"That was uncalled for," Draco sniffed, "There's only _one _rodent _here_." Harry resisted the urge to strangle the Slytherin. _At least when Ron's around his snarkiness isn't directed at _me_._

"I agree, the only rodent here is a _ferret_!" Ron growled. _No, Ron! Fight it! Fight the Weasley Temper!_

"_I_ think it's a _weasel_."

Harry spoke into his textbook, not raising his head, "Did you know the ferret and weasel are closely related?"

For a few moments there was silence.

"That's just wrong, Harry." Ron said, deadpan.

Draco paused, "Actually, I think I'm the son of your cousin's mother's sister's sister-in-law..."

Ron hesitated, "How exactly do you _remember_ that kind of thing?"

"I had it drilled into me, in case my pure-blood status ever came into question. In fact..." He eyed Harry, "I think Harry's father's best friend's cousin is my mother... However, we aren't related, because James Potter's best friend was Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, and the Blacks and Potter have not intermarried for decades, centuries maybe, the Malfoys and Potters for even longer than that."

Harry grinned, "So my outlaw godfather is your Head of House by blood..."

Draco stiffened, "Even if Narcissa's marriage to my father was annulled, I would still be a Malfoy by blood and law."

Harry lay his head back down on the desk. "I don't get what you're trying to say here. I'm just going to sleep for however long we have left."

Ron followed suit and Draco appeared amused. As soon as Harry's eyes closed, the Slytherin poked him in the side.

Harry opened one eye blearily. "What?"

Draco pointed to the door and suddenly Professor Binns proclaimed the class dismissed. "It's time for lunch."

Harry groaned and carefully took Ron's wand before kicking his chair to wake him up.

"RECTUSEMPRA!" Ron bellowed, pointing in a random direction with his quill. He glanced around, confused, and Harry wiggled the wand between his fore and middle fingers. "Oh, thans fer wakin' me up, 'Arry..." He grabbed his wand and books, following as Draco stalked impatiently down the hall with Harry in tow.

"Which reminds me," Harry began as Ron caught up to them, "who has that unfortunate task now that I'm gone?"

Ron blanched, "Don' say it like that, mate, it makes it seem like you're never coming back." He adopted a thoughtful expression. "Well, I guess it's Seamus, 'cause he _did_ wake me up today." His face had become slightly pink at these words.

"Did he do a good job of it? Should I promote him?" Harry asked teasingly, and Draco rolled his eyes, speeding up a little.

"Er- I hope he isn't going to take on the 'job.' I'd rather be late everyday."

Harry tilted his head, and despite his best efforts, Draco found himself curious.

"He sort of jumped me."

Draco's face contorted, he did _not_ need that mental image!

Harry seemed to be just as curious as before, "He jumped on you?"

Ron groaned, "Harry... You're great and all but you know next to nothing about relationship slang..."

"You're together?!"

"NO! He- he sat on top of me and licked my ear and stuff and it really really confirmed my absolute straight-ness!" Ron shuddered, "It was almost as high on the 'Creepy Scale' as this one time I walked in on Fred and George 'experimenting-'"

Harry winced and held up a hand, "You've told me this story before, and it scarred me for life. I can't look them in the eyes any more without thinking about that."

Draco's eyebrows rose.

"I know. I never thought either of them would go so far as to bring in a couple and 'analyze' them snogging to see if they could switch someone's sexuality for a day!"

Draco refused to show his surprise at the complete and total difference from what _he'd_ been thinking.

"I know!" Harry replied, "Now stop!"

"But think about it! Do you know how weird it is to come into a room and see two people swapping spit as your brothers tape, comment, and scribble on clipboards about what was happening?!" Ron continued, "It was just too creepy to have my brothers _examining_ two _strangers_ making out passionately on our _couch_!"

Harry's face scrunched up, "And who would even volunteer for that sort of thing?"

Ron shrugged. "I don't know. Oh, did I tell you how their Love-Swap candy turned out?"

"No."

"Well, instead of _switching_ which gender they were attracted to, it _intensified_ it. Especially if there was someone they liked, they'd be all over them!"

The two Gryffindors began a long conversation about Fred and George's different 'candies' and Draco remained silent, filing away the information and reminding himself to _never_ accept _anything_ from the Weasley twins.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

"Draco dearest, darling Drake-Drake, sweet Drakie, wondrous 'Co!" Harry shook his head in amazement, "And not the smallest response! Those _always_ freak you out!"

It was about a week from their disastrous first meeting this school year, and the two other schools in the Tri-Wizard Tournament were to arrive that very day. Harry had woken up excited- until he realized he couldn't move and was being weighed down by something very heavy. He and Draco often pushed each other out of the bed or ended up in awkward positions, but this one was, at the time, the most annoying. Draco had at some point rolled _onto_ Harry, but at least Harry's face was clear, right above Draco's shoulder.

Harry squirmed a bit and the one-armed grip Draco had on his waist tightened- yet Draco himself showed no signs of waking up.

Harry sighed, "Time to pull out the big guns." Harry whispered directly into Draco's ear, "Draco, our wedding is in an hour." No sooner than the words left his lips-

"WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Harry let out a breath of relief as the taller boy jumped off him, "Thank God, I thought I was going to be crushed to death."

"WEDDING?!"

Harry waved his free hand dismissively and sat up, "I was just waking you up."

Draco let himself fall back down into a sitting position, "Thank _God_."

"Aw, it can't possibly be _that_ bad to marry cute little me!" Harry grinned at the expression of disbelief on Draco's face.

"Stop it Harry, I'm going back to sleep."

"No! I've been trying to wake you up since six!"

Draco glanced at the clock, "It's half-past eight, Harry, nice try."

"EXACTLY!"

Draco took in Harry's disheveled and moody state calmly. "I guess you have. It's a Saturday though, so... Good Night."

"MALFOY!"

"Fine, fine, I'm up!"

The two wizards got dressed, Harry with enthusiasm and Draco with annoyance. They were just about to leave when they glanced at each other and-

"Wrong ties."

Draco pulled off the Gryffindor colors hastily and Harry handed him the green tie he'd been wearing with no little amusement.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

"VIKTOR KRUM IS COMING HERE!"

Harry blinked as the red blur in front of him jumped up and down and Draco growled.

"Is _this_ why you woke me up so fucking early?"

Harry's blinking reached Mach 5 momentarily. "No, I woke you up to see Durmstrang and Beauxbatons arrive. And eight thirty isn't early."

"It is for a bloody Saturday."

"Cra-anky."

"Shut up, Potter."

The red blur- one Ronald Weasley- exclaimed, "VIKTOR KRUM IS A STUDENT AT DURMSTRANG!"

"I thought you were a Chudley Cannons fan?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, but Krum is AWESOME! I hope he sits with the Gryffindors..." Ron floated off into fanboy bliss.

"Er, I'll be sitting with Slytherin for breakfast and dinner, since we were only there for lunch yesterday." Harry said, uneasily as Ron was still staring into the distance dreamily.

Ron snapped out of it and shrugged, "You'll still get to sit with Krum for part of the day."

Draco smirked, "Krum sitting with Gryffindors? Don't make me laugh."

"And where _else_ would he sit?" Ron growled.

Harry cut in, "While Gryffindors _are _better than Slytherins, let's not start another fight, especially when I'm rather attached to my life and don't want to lose it so soon."

Ron stuck out his tongue but aquiesced. "So... What do you think of the DADA professor, Harry?"

"He's better than everyone but Professor Lupin so far. I think he took it a little far with the spider thing, though..." Harry replied.

Draco sighed and dragged Harry onward, forcing Ron to start walking if he wanted to keep talking with the brunette.

"I think it was bloody brilliant! I mean, he..." While Ron and Harry became deeply involved in their discussion of the professor, Draco drifted off into his own thoughts.

_Durmstrang _is_ coming today... Maybe I'll see my cousin... Probably not though, I think only seventh years and up are coming... It'd be wicked if he did, we could try and do the whole switching pla- Nope, right, stuck to Harry like glue, not to be undo under threat of imminent statue-ization. Paralyzation. Great,_

"-ACO! BLOODY HELL!" Harry shouted into his ear, finally waking him from his thoughts.

"WHAT THE HELL, P- HARRY?!"

"We've been standing in from of the Great Hall for nearly a minute now!" Harry exclaimed, "Nothing would move you! You just stood there! Staring at the bloody door!"

"Yeah, well, now you know what it's like..." Draco muttered.

"Whatever. I'm hungry. Let's eat." Harry dragged Draco through the large doors towards the Slytherin table and Draco sighed impressively.

"Just my luck to be shackled to the one person who is more breakfast-oriented than a certain Weasley I could mention..."

Harry stuck out his tongue childishly, "So what?"

Draco cracked up.

* * *

**Read and review, please! ...Please?**

* * *


	7. Letter in!

**Fuahahahaha? I'm back? *suddenly cowers* Don't hurt me! I just went back to school, and I haven't had time to write! Even now, I should be working... *sobs***

**Disclaimer: I... Don't... *chokes, and spits it out* ownHarryPotterorhisworldatall! *sobs***

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel.**

**Please review about any inconsistencies! I have never had a beta, so, there's bound to be a lot.....**

Harry felt like pulling his hair out. Or maybe Malfoy's. That might be more satisfying. For some reason, as the morning had gone by, Draco had regressed into the slimy, insulting, arrogant Malfoy he'd always been just under the surface. Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and the Slytherins had started out badly, and by the end of it, Harry was comforting several crying Hufflepuff girls and restraining a few of their enraged male counterparts- albeit half-heartedly, and wanting to get a few curses in himself, but he still managed to hold back both them and his temper...

(oo00oo00oo00oo)

As the two walked to Care of Magical Creatures, Harry seethed at Malfoy's indifferent look. "What the hell was that? All Susan did was try to help you with the Ristingula!"

Malfoy looked out the window, "Let's get going, Potter, or we'll be late."

And so, Harry seethed at a much quicker pace than before.

Malfoy groaned inwardly at the boy's mutterings, _What was I supposed to say? Sorry, Harry, but my position in Slytherin has been faltering ever since I got stuck with you? I need to behave like I normally do, I can't just all of a sudden drop an act I've been succeeding with since I was seven! I'd be killed!_ An image of his father flashed through his mind and he gulped nervously. _Probably literally in his case. _When they arrived at the small wooden hut, the oaf was out and shooing off students, who all seemed both happy and relieved to go.

Harry snapped out of his anger just long enough to become confused, "Where's everyone going?"

"How should _I_ know? I've been with you this whole time, Potter, remember?" Draco held up their joined hands mockingly.

Harry scowled, but attempted a weak smile when Hagrid shouted him over. "Hey, Hagrid..."

"'Arry! An' Malfoy, I see..."

Draco sneered.

"What's going on? Why's everyone leaving?" Harry asked.

"'Old yer 'orses, 'Arry, 'm' sorry I can' tell you, but jus' know that class is canceled an' you'll be findin' out why in a lil while. Why don' you two 'ead o'er ter the lake fer a bit o' a stroll? Yeh migh' see sum'thin' int'resting..." Hagrid's eyes twinkled, Dumbledore-fashion.

Draco rolled his eyes and made to leave, but Harry shouted a good bye and dragged him in the general direction of the lake.

"_Where_ are we going, Potter? Don't tell me you're actually going to take that _buffoon's_ advice."

Harry shot him a withering glare (which had no effect) and snapped, "Remember our truce, _Drakie_? Don't mess with my friends, and we don't mess with yours. I'm this close to breaking it myself, so please just shut-"

"Don't try to tell me what to do, _Potty_, I'm so far above you that the most you'll see of me after Hogwarts is the bottom of my shoes," Draco snarled.

Harry held up their joined hands and growled, "Forgetting something?"

Draco grimaced, but said nothing more on the subject. Harry turned away and continued walking towards the lake, with Draco following silently. Harry picked his way over clumps of grass and cattails, and sat down on a large boulder near the lake's edge. Draco scowled at the dark gray, slightly damp rock, but sat as well. They stared out over the lake in silence.

The waters were a dark blue, as the sun was almost directly overhead, and the spots of light reflecting off the surface made the lake look like liquid gems. Algae adorned waves here and there, looking for all the world as if they were simply oddly-colored waves themselves. The browning cattails around the lake created a natural frame and separated the rocky shore from the grassy hills just a bit further away. The quiet, yet sharp noise created by an overlap of crickets, frogs, birds, and water filled the scene, and Harry felt himself unwillingly begin to relax. Draco's hand twitched over his own and he tensed. Scowling at his display of weakness, he glanced at the blonde- and froze. The sunlight played over Draco's hair, causing his normally yellowish blonde hair to turn a blinding white, and Harry couldn't stop his eyes from raking over the other boy's toned figure. He snapped his gaze back to the boy's face and Draco's silver eyes glinted. He turned to Harry, and Harry thought his eyes actually looked soft for a moment before they tore themselves away from his own to glare at the horizon. Harry grumbled and turned back to the lake. For some reason he felt cheated of something.

(oo00oo00oo00oo)

"Look it's-" Ron started, as he saw Harry down by the lake, but Seamus clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Be quiet Ronnie!"

Ron rolled his eyes silently, and stuck his tongue out to try and get Seamus's hand off his face. Unfortunately his plans backfired.

Seamus grinned and leaned forward, pressing the length of his body against Ron's back. "Why Ronniekins," He purred, "I seem to remember a certain someone shouting loudly that he 'didn't swing that way.' Did you change your mind?"

Ron's eyes widened in horror.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

A shriek sounded- and the two boys turned as one. Harry recognized the red mop of hair instantly- "Ginny must be in trouble!" He leapt off the rock, dragging a reluctant Draco behind him. However, his hunch was incorrect, and when he made it up the hill, Seamus was rolling on the ground laughing while Ron was a bright red with his arms crossed over his chest and a snarl un-sounded on his face.

"What happened? Where's Ginny?" Harry asked urgently.

"Honestly, Potter, can you be that thick? It's obvious Weasel screamed, not your precious little Weaselette girlfriend." Draco snarked.

Harry winced, "I'm gay, Malfoy, don't even joke about that."

Ron forgot his previous embarrassment at this, "What? Do you think dating my sister would be disgusting or something?!"

"Yes, Ron, I would, but before you go on and on, LISTEN. Dating Ginny, to me, would be like dating Seamus to you."

Seamus broke out into renewed laughter and Ron's redness increased.

Harry looked between them, slowly piecing it together in his mind... "YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED, AREN'T YOU! OH MY GOD I HAVE TO BE YOUR BEST MAN!"

Seamus laughed harder and Ron turned redder, "NO WE ARE NOT! I AM STRAIGHT! STRAIGHT STRAIGHT STRAIGHT STRAIGHT!"

Seamus was gasping for air now.

"HE FRICKING JUMPED ME AGAIN!"

Harry finally got the right conclusion in mind and joined Seamus in insanity.

Draco took this as good-humouredly as a Malfoy can- by not killing everyone there and forging a suicide pact. "It's really not that funny, so SHUT THE F-" Harry was on his feet again, and had muffled him Seamus style.

When Malfoy glared at him, Harry pointed up the hill. Dumbledore- in all his orange and green glory- was striding down the hill, a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lips. "Ah, good afternoon, boys, I see you're in the perfect location for the landings. I do hope you thank your source of information."

Harry smiled, "Of course, Headmaster."

The other boys nodded as Draco scowled, pulling Harry's hand off his mouth.

Dumbledore turned the twinkle high-beam and everyone squinted, "Well, I must be on my way."

Seeing as it was such a nice day, half the student body was outside to witness the entire staff gather at the edge of the lake, and most followed suit, while the rest brought out the students who had remained inside. When Snape stepped outside, Seamus wordlessly handed Harry five Galleons, which Harry pocketed in equal silence. However, when he placed a hand on the banister leading down the stairs, Harry swore and passed the five galleons to Ron, who smiled smugly. They watched the staff in silence a few moments more before Draco's patience cracked.

"What the hell was all that about?" He asked.

Harry glared, "Speaking to me again, are you?"

Draco sighed, "Let's just say I've been having a bad day."

Harry rolled his eyes, _I've had the _exact same_ day as you have, you know!_ Suddenly, he remembered something that had happened just before Draco's attitude shift. A letter had arrived that made Draco's face go stone cold, and his hands shake. He wouldn't let Harry know who it was from though, and had become increasingly infuriating and snarky all morning. "Right. Well, you see... We had a bet going about Professor Snape."

He seemed satisfied with his answer, but it wasn't enough for Draco, "What _was_ it?"

Harry sighed, "Well, one day, Seamus remarked that he'd never seen Snape go outside, and that the one time he had worn his mum's rosary to class Snape had stayed away from his table the whole time, and he thought Snape was a vampire. Obviously, I disagreed, and he bet me five Galleons Snape would burn up if he walked in the sunlight. I agreed to the bet, because Snape couldn't possibly be a vampire."

Draco nodded here, somewhat surprised at Harry's logical conclusion.

"I mean, it was so clear he was a Dark Elf, it was disturbing."

If Draco had been in an anime at this very moment, he would have fallen flat on his back in dismay and exasperation.

"When I mentioned this to Ron, he bet me Snape _wasn't_ a Dark Elf, and it looks like he's won- if that's real silver in the railings." He sent a dark look to Ron, who grinned.

"Those railings _do_ have silver in them Harry, 'Mione told-" He stopped, and they all glanced away awkwardly. Draco had decided to think of this as research, and you can't kill the subjects you're observing, right? _I hate the Weasel so much..._ He thought wistfully, _And it would be so nice if he just disappeared off the face of the earth..._ He tried not to think of what brought this familiar emotion up again, but it's rather hard to ignore something when it's moping around right next to you.

Suddenly the crowd at the lake's edge erupted into excited chattering. Draco turned towards it and forced Harry to do the same. A large black blot was growing larger in the blue sky.

"What could it be-"

"Maybe they're riding a dragon!"

"Do you think it's the schools for the-"

"-heard about the-"

"-all the way from Germany?"

Snippets of conversation assaulted the quartet and Seamus pulled Ron into the crowd and disappeared.

"Hey! We just found Harry!" He complained.

"Yes, but we ruined their date, so-"

"WHAT?!"

"Ron!"

"WHAT?!"

"Didn't you see how they gazed at each other, as they _sat on a boulder by the lake together?!_" Seamus exclaimed, in the throes of happiness, "I've been waiting for this for _years_!"

"WHAT?!"

Seamus sighed and magicked the boy's mouth shut. "You're cute Ron, but sometimes I wonder if you're playing with a full deck."

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

Hermione scowled as she watched Ron and Seamus dive into the crowd away from Harry and Malfoy. _Don't they realize they're forcing them to stay together? If they just would stop being friendly towards Harry, he could be freed! The curse would break! Harry's too important to the Light to be stuck with someone as influential and sneaky as Malfoy. What if he's coerced to the Dark!_ The crowd suddenly exclaimed as one and Hermione turned back to go into the castle- ignoring the confused looks Lavender was shooting her.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

Draco shuffled awkwardly next to the depressed Potter he was then shackled to. The blot had grown larger still, and now everyone could see that it was an intricate white carriage, with gold designs and wheels. The carriage itself was as big as the crowd of students on the banks of the lake. Pure white horses with greaceful feathered wings touched down with the poise of a dancer, and the biggest women Draco had ever seen stepped out. _She even gives the half-breed a run for his money._ She was dressed in a large, floppy hat, a long gray-green dress, and a handbag the size of a backpack. As she stepped out, a flood seemed to follow her in the form of entirely blue-garbed students. Nearly all were females, and nearly all the females were extremely attractive. Draco raised a brow. _Are they a school or a modeling facility?_ He felt a slight sense of relief that Harry wasn't slobbering after the girls- he didn't want to be the only one. He paused, _Of course he wouldn't be. He doesn't like girls, he likes..._ He didn't finish the thought, his mind going elsewhere- _I'm shackled to Potter, the Golden Boy, and he's gay. And we sleep in the same bed... And change together... Possibly... Forever..._ He eyed the boy next to him, and couldn't manage to pull up the proper amount of revulsion. _Why aren't I having a fit right now? I still hate him don't I?_ His mind unfailingly replied, "Yes," but something else seemed uncertain. Draco groaned inwardly and prayed for a distraction.

"Look!" Someone shouted, turning their eyes to the water.

Everyone's gaze swiveled to the lake, just in time to see the top of a mast break the surface of the water. The mast, like the rest of the ship that followed, was wooden, algae and barnacle-ridden, and yet- an epitome of the words majestic ruin. The cracks in the wood were evident, but the ship itself seemed to be dignified as an elderly wiseman. The sails were billowing without a breeze, in spite of the large holes in their fabric. Water rushed off the deck as it rose from the lake, and red-garbed students began appearing from below-deck. They were dressed in thick furs- which seemed unneccessary in the fall heat. Most were male, all were intimidating. Once again, Draco felt the relief of having someone react the same way he did- speculatively. Although his surprise overrode his relief at first. Suddenly, his entire countenance brightened as he saw a familiar face.

"Lestrange!"

* * *

**Review please! *it'snotacliffieit'snotacliffieit'snotacliff- **is strangled by Truth** Alright it is, don't kill me!***


	8. The Amazing Bouncing Blur of Blonde

**This chapter is more of a promise than a chapter, and a load of excuses.**

**DISCLAIMER: If I owned it, I wouldn't be posting it here, now would I?**

**Dedicated to! Non Innocent Angel! :D (I think... I get my stories confused...)**

**I know that most everyone has probably abandoned this sorry excuse for a story, but, just in case anyone hasn't... ;)**

**Edit: I'm afraid I was young and stupid when I believed I could manage RL, original stories 1 & 2, and an update a week for each fanfic. I rescind that foolishness now. 0.0**

"DRACO!" A bouncing ball of white on the ship almost _jumped_ over the railing on the steps that were being lowered, and sprinted over to Harry and Draco. Draco shot a Petrificus Totalus at the hyperactive blur and it dropped like a sack of potatoes- revealing a Draco look-alike. However, it appeared this was not what Harry saw.

"He's so cute!" The brunette exclaimed.

"You do realize-" At this point Draco would be hard pressed to continue his sentence as the boy previously known as 'that blur over there' broke through the spell and threw himself at his cousin.

"DRACOOOO!" The boy jumped back off his cousin, and grabbed Harry and Draco's joined hands, "OH MY GOD, ARE YOU TWO TOGETHER? MY CUZZIE'S FOUND _LOVE_?" He squeezed the two of them together, and as soon as he let go, Harry snapped a picture with the camera he had 'confiscated' from Colin.

"You're so cute!" He exclaimed, hugging the boy.

Draco just gaped open-mouthed at the mayhem these two meeting could cause. "R- Rick, P-Potter?"

Rick grinned, "You chose a good one! Knows quality material when he sees it!"

Harry and Rick shared a grin and Draco wondered if maybe it would've been better if his cousin _hadn't_ come.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

"So Harry's free then?" Rick asked after Draco had calmed him down and explained what was going on.

Draco opened his mouth to answer, but Harry beat him to it, "Of course!"

Draco glared at the two of them, "And it doesn't bother either of you to be from warring families?"

Harry tilted his head to the side and Rick replied, "Nope! Besides, you know I defected to the Light. I'm the white sheep of the family." Rick cracked up and Harry's lip twitched.

"I'm just messing with you, cuz. He's cute and all, but I think this could be the start of a beautiful _friendship_."

Harry stuck out a hand, "Friends?"

Rick grinned evilly and shook it, "The best."

"Now, just hold on a minute here," Draco held his head in his hand, "Why do I get the feeling that this will be bad for everyone around you two?"

"Because we're just that good," Rick struck a pose and Harry laughed.

"I thought the Triwizard Tournament was only for seventh years...?" Draco trailed off.

Rick had the decency to look sheepish, "About that..."

Harry suddenly felt the random need to fall to his knees and start apologizing- though for what he was unsure. "RICHARD OLIGAR LESTRANGE! ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU STOWED AWAY?" Ah, so Draco's aura of righteous fury had been affecting his brain.

Richard cringed, "Not really, I mean they found out about me on, like, the second day-"

Draco's aura became a bit more fearsome. "They WHAT?"

Rick seemed to shrink into himself, "I just wanted to see you..."

Harry leapt to the boy's defense. After all, for him, a cousin stowing away to see him was next to impossible, especially since Dudley would probably just want to beat him up."Draco! All he wanted was to see _you_! Don't you think you could be a _little_ more forgiving?"

"I see you've met our little stowaway Misters Potter and Malfoy..." A deep, burly voice trailed off and they turned to see the imposing headmaster of Durmstrang directly behind them. He glanced questioningly at the two's joined hands but did not comment bar a raised eyebrow. "I assure you he will be duly punished for bothering the two of you-"

Harry cut him off, "No, it's fine, he's Draco's cousin."

Draco jumped into the conversation, "You already know our names, if you would grace us with your own?" Harry tilted his head bewilderedly at the change in tone.

"Ah, yes, I am Headmaster Karkaroff of Durmstrang. If the stowaway is not bothering you, then I can allow him to go unpunished for his transgressions... For now..."

Harry was very glad he hadn't been found by _this_ school on his eleventh birthday. For some reason, the man just seemed slimy.

"Oh, look at my wrist! We must be going!" Rick exclaimed, pulling the very very willing pair away from the surly headmaster.

Once they were out of hearing range, Harry remarked, "I don't like that man. Something about him..."

"He's a bloody _Death Eater_, dumbass," Draco hissed.

Harry put a hand to his chest, pretending shock, "You say that like it's a bad thing. Where's the DE-in-training we all knew and loved?"

Draco scowled but couldn't get a word in edgewise once his cousin began speaking, "Oh, Draco's never really been like that. He's more of the 'I am loyal when I want to be, but I'll kill when I need to' types. You know, all 'I'm not Dark _or_ Light, so freaking deal with it!' Of course, he's gotta keep up family pride and all that so-" Draco clapped a hand over the smaller blonde's mouth.

"If you want to be able to have children, I suggest you keep your mouth this way. Shut."

"That's low, Draco, you know I-" One glare had Rick shutting his mouth and crossing his legs.

**fuahahahah, so who likes Ricky? Want him to have a big part or a little part? It's already planned but I can be swayed...**


	9. The Super Short Protective Streak

**This is super super short because my mum has been sick and it's finals time and I've been studying. It's about half the length of a short chapter, but I've felt so bad about not giving you weekly updates (due to afore-mentioned tragedies) that I just posted what I had typed up. Oh yeah, I say "Theo" a lot in the beginning, but I mean "Blaise' and I fix my mistake about the third chappie...**

**Disclaimer: J. owns everything. Even me.**

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel.**

The rest of the day passed in speculation about who the champions of each school would be and whether the judge could be fooled. Even Draco seemed a bit brighter in spirit for it.

"What the fucking hell are you talking about! You can't do that to my cousin, you bastard!" Alright, maybe not so much. "I will slit open your-" Harry slapped his free hand over Draco's mouth for the second time that day and gave a weak smile to Karkaroff.

"He's had a bad day... Please excuse his behavior... He's also drunk and cannot be held responsible for his actions when he sobers up..." Harry dragged Draco away under the suspicious eye of the Durmstrang Headmaster. Once they had passed out of hearing range Harry sighed and allowed Draco freedom of speech.

"What the fuck! That man sent Rick back with an _Auror escort! _They're going to bloody _kill_ him! His _mother_ is _Bellatrix Lestrange! _The woman who _tortured war hero Frank Longbottom and his wife into insanity!_" Draco was nearly frothing at the mouth and looked ready to turn around and go right back to 'fighting the good fight.'

"Draco..." _Never knew he had such a protective streak in him..._Harry continued in a soothing tone, Tonks is a good person and she doesn't judge based on someone's parents. She'll keep him safe." Draco appeared slightly subdued by Harry's words and nodded tersely. He looked down, attempting to control his temper, and realized that Harry was holding both of Draco's hands between his own. (Between and not within as Harry's little hands could never cover Draco's.) Draco wondered whether or not Harry had noticed exactly what he was doing and inwardly snorted at the fact that Harry really did have a "saving people thing." "Draco...?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "I'm fine, Harry, but you're taking this truce quite oddly."

Harry narrowed his eyes warily, "Are you try-"

Draco abruptly began walking towards the Great Hall, absent-mindedly swinging their joined hands, "I'm not going to go after Karkaroff. You've assuaged my fears, oh great Scarhead-who-wouldn't-die."

Harry had to snort at that one and walked a bit faster to match Draco's pace, "For some reason I don't believe a Malfoy would be that easily convinced."

Draco shrugged as they entered the Hall, "I may have hated you for years, but..." The next part was said casually, but so quietly Harry almost didn't hear, "I can trust you to tell the truth."


	10. Shit Happens

**YAY! Finals are over, even if all teh wonderful medical issues of my family aren't, so I'm posting this chapter before I'm delved into the world of cleaning.**

**Dedicated to: Non Innocent Angel. Who for some reason, takes the shape of an anime girl with black hair and gray wings in my head...... Weird.........**

**DISCLAIMER: I disclaim thee! I disclaim thee!**

**Draco- Where's the Drarry, dangit?!**

**Harry- 0.o**

**Me- This is a semi-slow story. You'll get your Drarry sometime after the first task and before the third.**

**Draco- No fair! That's a wide range of time! I want to ravish Harry now!**

**Harry- *jaw drops in terror***

* * *

"I'm... _So..._ Bored..." Draco complained, looking up at the enchanted ceiling.

The past week had passed without any major occurances, and only minor scuffles between Harry and Draco. Draco and Ron, however, were an entirely different matter.

"Yeah, well, Harry's got a right to a life too, Ferret face," Ron snapped, and Seamus nodded from his position on Ron's shoulder. It seemed the more Ron tried to get rid of him, the more 'irresistable' Ron became to Seamus. At one point during the week, Ron had broken down and shouted that he liked _girls_ with _real curves_ at the unrelenting boy, but Seamus had shrugged and replied that he was willing to 'work past their differences in opinion.' Ron eventually stopped attempting to lose his Irish shadow and became nearly immune to his 'romantic' advances.

Harry sighed, he was quickly becoming sick of the quarrels between Draco and- well, everyone around him. _Sometimes I want to just kiss him senseless for a little silence!_ Hold on, pause. Rewind. _Did I just think what I think I thought? ...There was absolutely no sense in that statement... But what the hell was that? Why am I thinking about k-_ Harry couldn't bring himself to say the words once more, even inside his own head. _I mean, just because I'm gay doesn't mean I'm attracted to every male thing that walks my way. _He glanced at Draco, who was in an unfriendly staring contest with Ron. _What could I possibly see in a guy who's done so many horrible things to us over the years? Not that we didn't retaliate... And provoke him... And pretty much start the whole thing off with a misunderstanding......_ Harry shook his head and concentrated fiercely on clearing his head of such blasphemous thoughts.

"Harry, mate... Why're you glaring at your plate?" Ron asked as Seamus cracked up at the rhyme. Ron glared briefly at the slightly less gangly boy and turned back to Harry, "I mean, what did your drumstick ever do to you?"

Harry intensified his glare, "It killed my herbology project and told Voldemort where Dumbledore's secret stash of lemon drops are."

Ron gasped, "What a horrible thing to do! Kill it! Kill it now!"

Harry grinned, "Gladly." He bit off a piece of the meat and chewed contentedly as his friends laughed and a smirk played about Draco's lips briefly before being swallowed up in stone.

Suddenly, a violet-clad Dumbledore (Draco and Harry glanced knowingly at each other) stood and silence blanketed itself over the Great Hall. "May I have everyone's attention? As you all know, the First Task takes place in a little over two weeks, but as of this moment, we do not have anyone to participate." He raised his hands slightly to the side as he spoke, "It is time... For the Champions of the schools to be chosen..."

Murmurs rippled up and down the tables in a subdued frenzy. The twins were boasting of the length of their beards when they tried to defy a certain age line around the Goblet of Fire, a magical device that would choose each Champion. Ron was lamenting the fact that he wasn't old enough to enter while Seamus, and surprisingly Lavender Brown, were hanging on his every word- and Hermione sat stiffly at the other end of the table, utterly alone in her silence. Harry rolled his eyes and took a smaller bite of his drumstick.

Draco, leaning the side of his face into his hand, drawled slyly, "What's wrong, _Harry_? Upset that you can't be the hero of the school this time?" Ron was too busy with "story time" with his enraptured audience to become enraged on Harry's behalf- for which Harry was both grateful and slightly regretful at once.

Harry held up his index finger in the universal sign for, "Wait a minute," while he finished chewing and swallowed. He turned slightly to face Draco, the two of them changing their grip on each other's hands without conscious thought as Harry moved. "I don't know what has you so mood-swingy today, or if there's a magical version of PMS for males-" Draco scowled but Harry continued, "-but I honestly don't care about who's the Champion. For _your_ information, I have never _wanted_ to be the bloody hero of the schoo-"

"-The Goblet of Fire!" Dumbledore finished grandly, as the Goblet appeared with a wave of his wand, blue flames crackling merrily. Apparently time doesn't stop for dramatic plot sequences.

Harry continued to glare, although silently, at the icy blonde and Draco, seeing that Harry had risen to the bait, smirked back. The two were deeply involved in their staring contest when the first name was called, and no one cared to try and snap them out of it.

"For Beaxbeautons! **(1)"** The Goblet's flames turned a deep scarlet interspersed with flashes of crimson and orange, before spitting out a semi-scorched scrap of parchment which Dumbledore snatched deftly from the air, reading aloud, "Fleur Delacour!" Ron cheered especially loud and Seamus shot the prancing blue-garbed girl a venomous look before she disappeared into the back room. The flames regained their red glow, "For Durmstrang!"

"It's Krum for sure!" Ron confided excitedly to the rest of the Gryffindors, just as Draco stuck his tongue out at Harry and Harry's glare deepened to a prolonged scowl.

Dumbledore read the name on the parhment, managing to sound both firm and cheerful, "Victor Krum!"

"That was amazing, Ron!" Seamus praised and Ron preened slightly before catching himself and looking suspiciously at Seamus.

"And last, but not least, Hogwarts's Champion is..." Dumbledore trailed off and the suspense was such you could almost hear a drumroll building in the air, "Cedric Diggory!" The Hufflepuff table roared in approval as Cedric joined the previous two students in the back room with a large rin on his face. The Ravenclaws clapped politely and the Slytherins were briefly seen to be mortified.

Ron shrugged at Lavender as he clapped along with the rest of the school, "I've heard Diggory's a nice enough bloke."

Dumbledore smiled at the crowd warmly, signaling for quiet which eventually petered **(2)** into the room. "Now that our three Champions have been chosen, we-" He stopped as the flames of the Goblet turned bloody a fourth time. The Hall seemed to collectively hold its breath- disregarding a certain two Fourth Years in a progessively childish staring match. Another piece of parchment was ejected from the leaping fire into the air before flittering down into Dumbledore's slightly shaking hand. Draco poked Harry in the nose and Harry's newly dubbed Evil Eye of Doom and Terror seemed to increase, locking their attentions on each other. Dumbledore smoothed the crinkled parchment, and whispered, "Harry Potter." A few seconds later, he looked up and bellowed, almost angrily, "Harry Potter!"

Harry looked up confusedly, "What did I do?" Draco rolled his eyes and Ron turned to face Harry with his mouth still slightly open.

"Why would you submit your name while you're stuck with Draco, Harry?" He sputtered incredulously, "You told me you didn't even want to be a part of the Triwizard Tournament!"

All eyes were on Harry as he answered eloquently, "What?"

"Harry Potter, come up here at once!" McGonagall called tightly.

Harry pulled Draco to his feet and the two of them proceeded up to the front where the professors ushered them into the back room.

"What are you doing heer? Do zey need us for som'zing?" The blue-garbed champion asked arrogantly, flicking back her silvery hair, "Well?"

"Potter, Malfoy, why did they send you back here?" Cedric inquired, brows furrowed.

Draco remained silent as Harry shrugged, "I have absolutely no idea. Draco was having too much fun _annoying me_ for me to pay attention to anything else." He shot a dark look at Draco, who simply sat down in one of the six plush armchairs with a smug look on his face, forcing Harry to either sit on the arm or fall over.

"Did they not tell you for vat you have been sent here?" Victor Krum demanded, pronouncing "not" as "note."

Harry shook his head irritably and fell over as Draco pulled his arm childishly. They ended up squashed together in the seat, and Draco's amusement began to decline rapidly. "I bet you something happened that's impossible and has never happened before, and as always, Harry is smack dab in the middle of it."

Fleur's attention was directed to Draco suddenly as he spoke, "Are you one of zee Malfoys?"

Draco blinked, but a smirk formed on his face, "Of course." Fleur strode over and before they could blink again slapped Draco resoundingly across the face. "What the bloody hell?!" Draco's hand flew to his cheek and when he brought it in front of his face, there was a dab of blood from the trickle forming at the corner of his mouth.

Harry took Draco's chin to inspect the damage, "She hits hard, huh? How'd you piss _her_ off?"

"His family haz besmirched zee Malfoy name! Zey're Darker zan zee Blacks!" She crossed her arms furiously and Draco glared up at her, wincing slightly as Harry performed a healing charm.

"I should have just left you to your pain, but I don't want to put up with the whining later," Harry explained, almost to himself, as he wiped his hands off on pant legs. He was summarily ignored.

Draco stood up, every part of him tense,"One: Nothing's wrong with being Dark, and two: my mother _is_ a Black, you bitch!"

Fleur gasped and snarled, "Don't you dare to be calling me zat, you foul cretin!" Harry felt a twinge of something, should he be standing up and defending Draco? _...Nah, he's fine on his own..._

"I'll call you anything I want, seeing as you're not even pure witch, halfbreed!" He spat back.

"MALFOY!" Harry stood up as well, pushing Draco back into his seat, "Sit down and shut up!" Out of shock, Draco obeyed. "Good. Now the two of you don't even know each other, and you're judging each other on things you've head been said! Draco, I have no idea about the halfbreed comment, but I recently discovered Hagrid is a half-giant-"

Draco seemed to be recovering, "Recently?!"

"-Shut up- but that doesn't change the fact that he is still one of the nicest people there are. Hell, he's nearly accepted you after all you've done to him. And Delacour, you're just as bad," Fleur's smug expression changed to anger, but Harry continued, "You came up to him without any notion of what he's like and began insulting his family. Now both of you shut up so I can think."

Draco rolled his eyes and remarked acidly, "Like that's going to teach us the error of our ways, boy wonder."

"Our truce?" Harry reminded him absent-mindedly, beginning to sit down.

Draco scowled and sat quickly, trying to steal the seat, but he didn't anticipate Harry sitting on top of him. "Get _off_."

"You can't make me." Harry responded apathetically, "If you do, we'll stop being in contact and die." He let go of Draco's hand and placed his own in his lap. Draco awkwardly put his hands on the arms on the chair, feeling insecure as they really could both die if seperated.

Fleur sat heavily in the armchair next to theirs and the remaining Champions mirrored her.

Silence reigned supreme in the small room and the crackling fire brought forth glints of light from the many display cases, other than an octagonal prism in the back that was covered by a cloth. The floor was stone and led harry to believe that this room was slightly lower than the Great Hall and was cutting into the ground a bit. He leaned back to see the ceiling, resting the back of his head on Draco's shoulder, and ignored Draco's tensing. The ceiling was paneled wood alternating between the imprint of a square and a square that seemed "pushed out."

"Have you ever seen this room before?" Harry found himself saying. He felt Draco shake his head and saw the other three people do the same.

"Vat is taking them so much of time?" Krum blurted, gripping the arms of the chair viciously.

McGonagall's currently shrill voice heralded the coming of the teachers, "They will _not_ compete, do you hear me, Albus? It's not safe! All any challenge would have to do to kill them is to split them up!" Draco decided safety beat feeling awkward and looped his arms around Harry's waist.

Harry turned his head slightly towards Draco, "What do you think they mean by, 'compete?'"

Draco's eyes narrowed, "It better not be what I think it is."

"That didn't answer my question, _Malfoy_."

"Well maybe you don't want to know, _Potter_."

"I'm sorry, Minerva, but Harry has been entered into a magical contract; he _must_ compete." Dumbledore's soothing tones did nothing to assuage her anger.

Karkaroff swept in after them, "That is unfair, Albus! Hogwarts would have _three_ Champions! I demand the Goblet be started back up so that Durmstrang and Beaxbeauton's may also have this amount!"

"I do agree!" Madame Maxine cried dramatically.

"I'm sorry, you and I both know the Goblet cannot be relit until the Tournament has ended," Dumbledore continued.

"_Three_ contestants!" Barty Crouch exclaimed.

"Two of which could be killed by separation!" McGonagall pointed out again, and Harry nervously placed his hands over Draco's, causing the Slytherin to smirk, _Looks like I'm not the only one feeling a little insecure._

"We all know that they didn't enter themselves, Mr. Malfoy is a Slytherin, and he wouldn't risk their lives like this, or let Mr. Potter do so," Moody commented from the shadows, causing everyone but Albus to jump. "The Tournament is dangerous for seventh years, and for fourth years..."

Albus looked over his half-moon glasses at the crippled Auror, "Are you suggesting someone entered Harry's name in the Goblet to bring him to harm?"

Moody nodded gravely and Harry sighed, "Should I even be surprised?"

Draco spoke up, "Isn't there any way out of it?"

Dumbledore shook his head, "I'm afraid as soon as Harry's name was placed in the flames, he was entered into a binding magical contract and you as well, by extension. I can only hope you both have enough training as of yet to make it through."

Draco felt Harry's heart pick up and knew his own was the same, so he voiced their shared sentiment. "Shit."


	11. Aaaaand now what?

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel. AKA the Angel of all things Non Innocent... fuahahahahahahaha**

**Disclaimer: I do not own. anything.**

**This isn't really a chapter, it's just a scene, and I'm posting it now because I go back to Hell tomorrow, AKA school, and I'm not sure I'll make it back! D:**

"We're dead," Draco stated unceremoniously and bluntly as he leaned back in the bed, "And I blame you for this."

They had been sent back to their purple quarters by Dumbledore and changed into their pajamas after a lengthy discussion about the media and how to handle them, which Harry had promptly tuned out.

Harry propped himself up on his elbows furiously, "Oi! It's not as if I put my name in the Goblet! You've been with me this whole time, when would I have managed it!"

Draco gave as awkward shrug from his laying position, "Maybe you got someone else to do it, but I believe you. I still blame you though."

Harry glared over at the blonde, "And may I ask why?"

Without humour, Draco replied, "Yes, you may."  
When no further information was forthcoming, Harry grit his teeth and asked, "So _why_ do you blame me again? I'm afraid the reason has slipped my mind."

Draco smirked, but did not rise to the bait, "I blame you because you've got a bloody hero complex that has the Dark Lord believing you're the one destined to defeat him."

Harry's eyes widened slightly as he cottoned on to the hidden meaning, "You think they're trying to kill me like Moody does?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "Tell me some _new_ information."

Harry huffed and turned on his side forcefully, causing the bed to bounce up and down briefly and Draco to growl. Draco switched hands so he could turn onto his side easier and glared at the black hair that came up just a bit higher than his nose. "No need to be so offended, _Harry_."

Harry turned over to face the arrogant Malfoy and they switched hands again so they were holding hands with the arms not pressed into the bed, "Just because something's true doesn't mean it isn't bloody _irritating_, Draco." Draco, however, was no longer listening and was instead staring intently at Harry's lips. As the silence wore on Harry began to squirm slightly under the other boy's gaze. "Draco… Draco! …Malfoy!" Draco came to with a start, a dusting of pink across his cheeks, and when Harry confusedly met his eyes, he felt his own face color unexpectedly.

Draco's silver eyes broke away from his and fixed on their hands, "Let's go to sleep, we're going to need it." Harry nodded and pulled a roll of twine out from under the pillow, beginning to bind their hands together. Somehow, the nightly ritual seemed tenser than usual, and Harry noted with a stronger blush that their fingers were entwined. Draco was silent, neither helping nor making snarky comments. The room had provided a window the first time Harry had woken up disoriented, and so the pale light of the moon watched without judgement the two confused boys as they sought- and found- slumber.

**Review? Even if it's just to yell at me for the shortness??? They feed the plotbunny!**


	12. Draco's Dragons

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel, the dark angel of all noninnocence! fuahahahahahahahaha**

**Dis"clamm"er- I dun own Herry Pter er Drako Maahllfoi at al.**

**Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter of Draco Malfoy at all. Just the disease or curse that is currently binding them together. :)**

**This is a bit more than twice the length of the previous chappie..... But I updated SMH with a chappie 3X the length of a normal one....... so it balances out.......**

Harry groaned and smacked himself in the forehead with a textbook, "How am I supposed to study for the the first Task if I don't know what it is?"

Ron looked up at him from across the table, "I suppose it's so you will prepare for anything and everything."

Draco snorted, "Yeah, prepare to cheat. Karkaroff and Madame Maxine have probably already told their champions what it is, so we should find out, too, Weasel."

"And _how _are we supposed to find out, Malfoy? My brother's _life _is on the line, don't you think I'd try every way I can to help him?" Ron exclaimed, while Seamus, who had been lurking around the library, looked on in ecstacy at Ron 'taking charge.'

"Brother?" Harry asked, looking for clarification.

Ron's ears flushed, "Well, er, we- the Weasleys- all love you, mate, what with all the time you spend at the Burrow, and we've sort of been thinking of you as the ninth Weasley in the family, you know? I know it's not really that important or anything, and we can't replace your real family but-"

"It's wonderful! Thank you!" Harry grinned and reached across the table for an awkward one-armed hug- which Draco shortened by tugging him back into his seat. Harry sent a weak glare in the blonde's direction which was venomously returned and the two of them sent a multitude of rude faces and gestures back and forth before Ron slapped the table and broke them out of their daze.

Ron shook his head, "Honestly, all the lovey-dovey faces you make at one another make me think you're a couple." Ron grinned at the two suddenly baffled and slightly blushing (Ron frowned internally) boys across from him.

"We aren't a couple," Draco responded smoothly, ignoring the pink tinge to his cheeks and reopening a Defense book. _Focus on living through the first Task._

"Y-yeah," Harry reaffirmed shakily, flipping a page in his book on charms and hexes.

"You're holding ha-ands," Ron pointed out in a sing-song voice, breaking the last word into two separate notes. Somewhere in the library, a Seamus-like voice snickered.

This put Harry on familiar ground, "Well, yeah, we have to or we die."

"_I_ turn into a _statue_," Draco muttered without taking his eyes from the page.

Harry rolled his eyes, and Ron responded, "You only have to be in _contact_, so you could just bind your hands together like at night, or just lay your hands on top of one another."

Harry paused uncertainly, and felt Draco's grip tighten minutely, "But if we tie them together, we lose mobility, and if we just lay them on top of each other it- it's too easy to break contact." The grip on his hand relaxed, and Draco threaded their fingers together, not once glancing away from the book. _This is _too_ confusing_, Harry complained internally,_ I should be thinking about the Task._ Harry decided to derail Ron's next arguement before he could start it, "Shouldn't we-or at least Draco and I- be focusing on the Task?" Draco blinked at his book several times as he heard his previous train of thought repeated aloud and Ron crinkled his nose.

"Yes..." Ron admitted, "You should..."

"Good, now let us study these," Harry retorted, turning back to his text.

(o0o0o0o0o0o)

"Oh bloody hell, what does he want now?" Ron groaned next to Harry at the Gryffindor table as a large black eagle-owl landed heavily in his scrambled eggs.

"Who?" Harry asked inquisitively while Draco ignored the entirety of the table.

Ron replied, his head in his hands, "Charlie. Ever since Norbert, he's thought I was a mini dragon trainer and keeps sending me different places to find dragons near Hogwarts and different materials he needs from each type. I keep telling him and telling him-"

"It can't be _that_ bad, you're not allowed off the grounds, and Charlie knows that," Harry attempted to stem the flow of Ron's rant, taking the parchment from the large bird's leg and opening the envelope. His eyes widened, "This isn't about scale-collecting."

"It's probably about urine samples or stool gathering, then."

Harry grimaced, but shook his head. He couldn't look away from the paper as he said, "No, that's not it either."

Ron took his head from his hands, interest piqued, "What is it about?"

"The first Task."

Ron's voice dropped into a whisper-shout, "WHAT?! How would _he_ know about it all the way in _Romania_?"

"He's coming here to help with the first Task," Harry's face was pale and Draco was reading the letter over his shoulder now.

"But-" Ron squeaked, cleared his throat, and tried again in a whisper, "But that means the first Task is- is-"

The blood ran out of Draco's face as he finished the letter and interrupted, "Dragons."

**Awwww, Drakie doesn't wike the wittwe Dragie-wagons.**

**0.0 Bellatrix is rubbing off on me.**

**Reviewssssssss? *puppy dog eyes***


	13. Friends

**I think my story's escaped me- or maybe I didn't ever have control. Like when you're driving a train for a while and try randomly turning down a bit of track and you can't because the computers won't let you and the track won't switch. There's been a set course all along! D:**

**Anyway, dedicated to Non Innocent Angel, the winged muse of this story without whom, there would not have been a first reviewer named "Non Innocent Angel." ;) XD**

**Disclaiming.... Disclaiming... Done! *poptarts pop up with a ding!* Oh darn it, have to do it the old fashioned way.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the series, movies, or merchandise assosciated with Harry Potter or J K Rowling.**(tATu tATu tATu)

* * *

After dinner that same Saturday, Ron trudged down to the library, grumbling, "You know, if I knew we'd be going to the _book place_ when you said you'd like my help-"

Draco snorted, "_Book place_, Weasel? Is little Ronnie-kins's vocabulary so limited?"

Harry tapped Ron and Draco each on the head with his wand silently, then stated, "That takes care of that."

The two boys' eyes widened at the implications and Harry enjoyed the total silence as they made it into the library and began looking up the weaknesses of dragons.

(tATu tATu tATu)

Harry closed the leather-bound book with a sigh, "Well, it looks like whatever we're doing, our best bet is to aim for the eyes of the dragon. If we have to ride it, i say we conjure a dragon-sized muzzle. What do you guys think?" Ron and Draco looked helplessly (Draco had gotten past his anger after reading a dry account of the dragon's life cycle) at the brunette and Harry smirked, "Afraid to talk?" The boys hesitated- neither wanting to be called a coward- but then Draco's self-preservation kicked in when he noticed Harry's smirk and he nodded. Harry looked between the boys with amusement, seeming to look down on them even from his vantage point a few inches below the taller boys. "You're both idiots. I just tapped you on the head. Nothing happened."

Draco's hand spasmed slightly, clenching Harry's painfully as the blonde's eye twitched and Ron's ears turned a burgandy red color.

"Did you have to do that, mate?" Ron moaned, "What if Lavendar had seen that?"

"Well, if Seamus had seen it, you might be out one of your more persistant suitors," Harry smiled beatifically and Draco stood.

"Alright, we know what we're going to do now in the first task, so let's just _go._"

"To bed?" Harry asked in confusion just as Ron queried, "What are you going to do?"

"Sure, to bed. Everyone needs sleep. And we're going to wing it, Weasel. What else could we do?" Draco sneered at the redhead and Ron stuck his tongue out childishly. Inwardly, Draco shuddered, _It's cute when Harry does it, but when the Weasel... That's just _wrong_. _Draco paused and examined those thoughts again. _Did I just- ...Shit..._

"Alright," Harry agreed, shrugging, "Night, Ron."

Ron broke off from glaring at Draco to wave distractedly at Harry and escape the wood-paneled walls of the "book place."

"I don't think he even heard me," Harry muttered as they walked out the side door to the library, heading for the Room of Requirement.

After arriving at their rooms, Harry and Draco unhurriedly stripped and changed into sweat pants to sleep in. Harry was asleep before his head hit the pillow and Draco didn't take long in following the shorter boy's lead.

(tATu tATu tATu)

Sunlight streamed through the illusory window in the Room of Requirement and lit up the fully lavendar room with a soft glow. The combination of homey warmth and suffocating overuse of different shades of purple was like being smothered to death by a motherly hug. Very much what one would imagine Madam Pomphrey's hugs would feel like, judging on the way she treated her patients.

Harry closed his eyes tightly to fend off the somehow neon-purple drapes and bright light from the fake window, burying his face in what he was dimly aware was Draco's shoulder. Draco's free arm was around his waist and his other arm was bent at a right angle so their bound hands would still be on the bed. Harry sighed into Draco's shoulder and shifted closer to his warmth. Suddenly, Harry could feel reverbations in Draco's chest as the blonde started to speak, "I should be very angry with you right now, but I can't bring myself to care."

Harry smiled faintly, "That's good. You're warm."

Draco smirked down at the top of Harry's head and a single chuckle escaped, "We're insane, aren't we?"

Harry closed his eyes, "I prefer to think of us as resigned to our fate and willing to make the best of it."

"This goes beyond a truce you know."

"...I know."

When Harry didn't seem likely to continue, Draco spoke again, "Forgive me for being a prat for so long?"

Harry blew out a gust of air before replying. "Only if you forgive me for starting it all off and not realizing there had to be more than what I was seeing."

Draco really laughed that time, and Harry was surprised to find he liked the sound. "My, that was specific."

Harry nodded into Draco's shoulder, and continued, "Friends?"

Draco rolled his eyes good-naturedly- though Harry couldn't see it, "Do I have a choice? It's our whole _life_ that we'll be stuck together."

Harry propped himself up on one elbow and Draco's chest to scowl at the other boy, "That didn't answer my question Malfoy."

"Well, _Potter_, maybe you wouldn't like the answer," Draco sneered. Out of the blue, Draco moved his arm from Harry's waist to tweak the boy's nose before returning it to its original position. He smirked at the bemused brunette, "Friends, Harry. Now shut up so I can go back to sleep."

**Review?? *puppy dog eyes* *Inner Gryff pushes past Inner Slyth* I GAVE YOU SEMI-DRARRY GOODNESS!!! *Inner Slyth locks up and chains Inner Gryff to a handy pole in a janitor's closet in the castle in my head* Ignore him. Review?**


	14. All Around the Mulberry Bush

**Disclaiming the Joy: Harry is not mine. Draco is not mine. Ricky Lestrange is mine. ALL MINE! FUAHAHAHAHAHA. Then again, so is the curse/disease thing Draco and Harry have but we don't talk about that, do we?**

**The dedication has not changed... Or has it? YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. :) --psycho**

**Alrighty then, this is the next chappie. And it's fluffy. I'm using it as a pillow tonight. That's the amount of major fluffage here. But I think it's funny, too.**

"Wake up or I'm going Finnigan's way and licking your ear." Draco groused- neither of them were _really_ morning people.

Harry didn't lift his head from Draco's shoulder, where he had fallen asleep, "I don't _care_. The weighing of the wands is today and we have a pass to miss class _all day_. And sleep is _good_._" _

Draco growled, not really wanting to follow through on his threat. "Harry, the sun is up, it's 7 o'clock, and we still need to get ready."

"We only take around ten minutes now..."

"Not the point..." Draco prodded the boy with his free hand before letting it fall back to his waist, "_Move_."

"Heh- no." Harry looked up at the blonde, "Maybe if you ask _nicely_. Aren't we _friends_?"

"Not in the morning apparently," Draco muttered, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm not friends with anybody in the morning," Harry admitted sleepily.

Draco growled threateningly, "Then I guess I'll have to be unfriendly."

Harry caught on to the dark tone and quickly began to get off of the the blonde- but not quick enough. Harry let out a startled yelp as he was swept up bridal style with their tied hands resting on Harry's leg since Draco was supporting said appendages with that arm. "Let me _DOWN_!"

"Oh, right away," Harry hastily threw his free arm around Draco's neck as Draco made as if to drop him momentarily. The Slytherin glanced down at the dark-haired boy clinging to him for life itself and a broad smirk spread across his face, "...Just joking." Harry scowled, trying to twist his right hand out of its bindings. "Now that you're out of bed, will you cooperate?" Harry glared up at him before returning to his previous efforts to free his hand. Draco raised an eyebrow at Harry's single-mindedness before he remembered, "Oh, that's right. Your right-handed. You're trying to get your hand free so you can curse me, aren't you?"

Harry twitched minutely without diverting his attention from the rather rough ties.

Draco snickered, "You _are_, aren't you! Well, rest assured, I will not be cursing you while you're indisposed, I'm left-handed, you see." Draco began walking out into the lavendar common room.

Harry tensed, "Where are you taking me?"

Draco shrugged, an amazing feat for one in his position, "I thought I'd take a stroll through the castle."

Harry looked up at the cunning devil in horror, "You know what everyone is going to think!"

Draco grinned, looking for all the world as if Harry's terror was his only goal in life, "I do."

"B-but- aren't you straight? Won't this destroy any chances you might have for a relationship wih some Slytherin girl? Come _on_ don't you care about your _reputation?_" Harry seemed desparate for an excuse- a fact which gave Draco pause and for some reason- made his heart twinge. _Does he think it'd be that horrible if people thought the two of us were together? _Draco felt the urge to commit seppuku for his horrifyingly crazy thoughts. _Just because we're friends now doesn't mean I think of- he thinks of me that way!_

Unfortunately for Draco, his little interior monologuse did _not_ compress conveniently into the blink of an eye and he came back to the real world to find Harry looking up at him calculatingly and- with a bit of sympathy? "You want... to use me... to come out, don't you? You're... a closet gay!" Harry smiled up at him kindly, "If you wanted me to help you come out, all you had to do was ask!"

Draco turned a bright red, "I don't need your help!" -but didn't put Harry down.

Harry grinned sympathetically, "It's okay. I know you're having trouble..."

"I'm- I-" Draco scowled suddenly, then set his shoulders and walked out the door.

"Draco- Draco I was kidding!" Harry squeaked in a very undignified manner when Draco jostled him on the way down the stairs, "Aren't I heavy? Don't you want to put me down? Oh bloody hell..." Harry gave up, his one free arm around Draco's neck and let his head fall onto the Slytherin's chest. "Where are we going?"

Draco paused, then continued walking.

Dawning horror forced Harry's mouth open. "You don't know, do you?" Draco didn't answer and Harry groaned, "You great bloody ponce- all this because I wouldn't get up early?"

"Maybe we'll visit the Slytherin Common Room..." Draco remarked casually.

Harry's eyes widened and his mouth snapped shut with an audible click.


	15. Bored Part One: The Tent

**This is only half a chapter, but I'm feeling far too pained to write more. XP It's like I'm covered in bruises, but I'm NOT! DX**

***irritated***

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel, who may at some point fly by and steal Harry and Draco to make them her slaves... .**

**DISS the Claim: **D**o** I** own thi**S**? no i **S**incerely do not.**

Draco blew a strand of hair off his face and leaned back, watching the other Champions in the mid-sized tent panic. He pointedly ignored the annoying Potter holding his hand next to him. You see, he was a bit sore about Harry essentially kicking him in the face a few days ago upon his realization that they were, indeed, heading towards the Slytherin Common Room- Harry refusing to apologize even up until now had been a rather large deterrent from attempting conversation Viktor Krum looked up from his pacing momentarily and shot a dirty look at the two oblivious fourth-years as Fleur muttered spells and plans to herself in a mixture of French, English, and senseless babbling. Harry rolled his eyes when Cedric hesitantly moved slightly away from the French part-veela- a fact which had been confirmed at the wand weighing earlier that week- perhaps in fear of a transformation. Seeing the anxiety of their fellow Champions, however, seemed to bring up something that broke through Draco's forced apathy. Boredom.

Draco turned to Harry and sighed. "So why aren't _you_ freaking out?"

Harry's eyebrows rose, "I've been forgiven? Hallelujah. Praise the heavens. Yay..." Draco twitched slightly.

"Don't push it."

Harry shrugged, "I don't really know, it just hasn't hit me yet." When Draco stared at him blankly, he explained, "Your question? I answered it...?" Draco's mouth formed a soundless "Oh" as he understood, then nodded. A few more moments of Fleur murmuring to herself, Viktor stomping around, and Cedric's rapid eye movements later Harry asked, "Why'd you want to know?"

"Bored."

"We're about to go face a fire-breathing dragon," Harry pointed out. Draco raised one eyebrow and Harry sighed, "Me too."

"I think we're going to die," Draco commented, leaning his chin on his hand.

The nerves of those around them began to be expressed much more quietly as they realized how oddly the two youngest champions were acting.

Harry halfheartedly waved a dismissive hand, "Nah. I've gotten out of worse things alone."

"Please don't finish that with 'but now I have you,'" Draco grimaced.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot that part. _But now I have you, Drakie-po-_" Draco dug his fingernails into the back of Harry's hand until Harry gave up on irritating the blonde any further. "So do you remember plans A through S?" The other Champions all paused almost imperceptibly.

"No. I don't remember _any_ of the plans I helped make," Draco growled sarcastically. "_Yes,_ I remember them."

"I'm thinking M." Harry looked up at the tent 'roof' and added, "If we live past the first maneuver."

Baggins entered the tent cheerily, "Alright, now it's time to _unveil the first task._" The five champions shot him a collective glare, but he was either oblivious or uncaring. "You will be retrieving a golden egg from a nesting... _Dragon!"_ He seemed disappointed to not receive a response, so Harry gasped and Baggins smiled excitedly, continuing, "Come up and pick a dragon out of the bag. It will have a number around its neck to show at what point you'll be starting. You each have an hour and will be timed. Points will be awarded for finesse, the shortest amount of time used, and-"

"Ve get it," Viktor interrupted gruffly, irritation showing in the way his already hunched shoulders were crawling up further towards his ears, "Can ve just get dis over wit?"


	16. Bored P 2: Choose a Dragon, Any Dragon

**The other half of the pre-Task chappie. :)**

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel I presume.**

**Diss the Claim: _Do_ I own Harry Potter?**

**HPCharacters: *thunderous* NO!**

**Me: *winter wind blows and I keel over in depression***

The Champions gathered around the smoking bag and Cedric dipped his hand in nervously, quickly pulling it back out. "It bit me!" he accused.

Fleur flipped her hair over her shoulder, "Eef you canno' 'andle a leetel neep, then 'ow do you expect to ween?"

Cedric glared at her and she stared coolly back. Sighing, he reached in again, wincing once but pulling out a dragon figurine. Baggins drew in his breath; the little dragon was roaming Cedric's hand with a "four" sign around its neck. It had four large horns on its crest and its wings took the place of its upper arms. The mottled brown and red coloration did not reveal its species- but the gigantic spikes poking out of its tail certainly gave it away. Baggins patted his shoulder with feigned confidence, "The Hungarian Horntail isn't nearly as bad as say…"

"What?" Cedric prompted.

"Er, I'll tell you later," Baggins looked away towards the other Champions, "Come on, then, don't be shy."

Fleur forced her way to the canvas bag and grabbed out a dragon figurine, "A Chinese Fireball." It resembled the red and gold paper dragons from certain Chinese celebrations and was named for its unfortunate tendency to burst into flame when provoked. The number "two" hung around its torso where it had slipped when the dragon ran up Fleur's fingers only to flip back down onto her hand.

Viktor sidled past Harry and Draco to slip his hand swiftly in and out of the sack. The dragon miniature gave a squeaky roar and pounded the famed Seeker's palm. It was in differing shades of green and looked so bulky you wouldn't expect any sort of flight to be available to it. "De Velsh Green," Viktor muttered. A "three" was dangling from its tail.

"Only one left," Baggins grinned, holding out the bag to Harry and Draco. Harry plucked out the last one, which was limp in his hand.

"Did the animation spell wear off?" Draco wondered aloud as Harry placed it gently in Draco's hand. The dragon yawned and rolled over.

"It's kind of cute while it's sleeping," Harry admitted, watching it sleepily smack its lips.

"That was anticlimactic…" Baggins murmured to himself. The dragon had a one painted on its cream colored stomach. The scales on its back were a pale dusty blue, and it had the wedge-nosed, streamlined shape of a European dragon with, again, large wings replacing forearms. Raising his voice to a normal level, Baggins commented, "A European Wyvern. Normally, they're quite irritable." Harry hugged his jacket a little closer and a Cheshire grin grew on his face.

"Forget the plans," He said.  
Draco balked slightly, "What!"

"I _said,_ forget the plans. I've got a better one. Especially for this dragon," By this point, Draco was waiting for a maniacal giggle to escape the brunette.

"What _is_ it?" Draco asked dubiously.

Harry began to whisper in his ear and Draco nodded several times throughout the whispered explanation.

Draco sighed, "I just wish we didn't have Herbology to thank for this."

**What does Harry have in mind? When did they come up with so many plans? Why would it work especially well on this dragon?**

**And why is Fleur being so prissy?**

**Do you know?**

**Cause I do. ;)**

**Tell me what you think!**


	17. Dragons are essentially lizards

**The long awaited first Task... With little to no action... Or is there? ...**

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel of angrily evil toddlers and joyful Voldemorts everywhere...**

**Diss the Claim: You think you know me? I am the fanfic writer. I pounce on unsuspecting plotlines and twist them to my will. I drag characters kicking and screaming where I wish them. I know fully well I do not own these things yet I mold them to my own darkly cheerful way of thinking. You think you know- OH MY GARSH WE HAVE BACON!**

Harry's hand was clammy as they walked into the arena with the larger version of their figurine stomping and hissing angrily- or maybe it was Draco's hand that was clammy? It didn't really matter at this point, since the boredom had worn off around the time Harry saw the immense BULK of the dragon they were fighting. He hoped fervently that their plan would go- well, according to plan.

"We can do this," Draco affirmed uncertainly.

"Yeah, I mean, Dumbledore's right there, and he wouldn't let us just die in front of him…" Harry seemed even less sure of his statement than Draco had been.

"Well, the whole reason the Triwizard Tournament was canceled was because of the uncommonly high death rate-" Draco stopped himself, realizing too late what that particular comment would do.

"That's just great, Draco."

The sun shone brightly despite the chill in the air and reflected brilliantly off the dragon's scales. Harry could just barely see the golden imposter nestled in the sandy dirt behind the wyvern. The crowd screamed encouragement and hissed insults as Baggins stood and announced the beginning of the first stand-off between student and dragon.

Harry thought back to the class that inspired it all, hoping to gain confidence from the matter-of-fact way Sprout had laid it out for them.

_"Alright, who can tell me what kind of climate Distilys Magnamorius, or the more commonly known, Dragon's Bane, grows in?" Professor Sprout asked the class as a whole, happily clapping her hands together when Draco raised his hand. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy?"_

_"Warm, sandy coastlines," Draco drawled in response._

_"Excellent, five points to Slytherin, now this is important, and I know your DADA teacher won't cover it, so does anyone know why dragons also prefer this climate, despite the amount of Dragon's Bane in the area?" She looked around expectantly, and when no one raised a hand, prompted hopefully, "Mr. Malfoy, perhaps?"_

_"I don't know, they have no where else to go?" Draco guessed, in ill humor at being called on without volunteering._

_"Precisely!" Professor Sprout beamed, before using a more serious tone to continue, "Dragons cannot stand the bitter cold, which is why there aren't many here in the Isles, and those are migratory at most. You need to remember that above all things, a dragon is a reptile and prone to the same weaknesses of that grouping of animals. Just because magic won't work, doesn't mean a little bit of common sense won't do wonders." Her eyes sparkled, "Two points more to Slytherin for sheer luck."_

_Harry groaned as Draco smirked triumphantly._

"This will work," He restated, and Draco gave him a sidelong glance with a half smile pulling at his lips and a furrow forming on his brow. The figurine in Harry's pocket squirmed, poking a head out to sleepily taste the air, and yawned ominously, showing tiny rows of needle sharp teeth.

"It better," Draco muttered and said, "On three."

"One," Harry started, voice wavering slightly.

"Two," Draco was surprised the dragon hadn't broken its chain with all the lunging it had been doing.

"Three!" Harry finished, and the two of them did something no one could have expected.

The two boys dropped hands and ran in opposite directions. The roaring in the stands was almost frightening and Harry could feel his magic tugging at him as if reprimanding him for being silly through the painful emptiness. Nearly simultaneously, both boys cast the freezing spell at the wyvern, although Draco had to cast with his non-dominant hand due to the creeping paralysis. The dragon was bewildered as to which side was being attacked and there was just enough time for the drop in temperature to begin to take effect. A full fifteen seconds later and Harry felt he wouldn't last half of one more. The dragon had slowly been drooping and a lackluster, confused attitude settled upon it. As it wearily and groggily looked forward instead of to the side, the fourth years ran around behind her towards the nest. Unfortunately, not seeing the intruders, the dragon had the same idea, and began turning back around. Harry grabbed Draco's limp arm and sighed in relief, feeling tears pricking at his eyes as the pain left him and he could feel the world around him again. Draco seemed to be feeling the same as he wiggled his fingers and rolled his shoulders almost in shock. The wyvern was still fuzzy in her sleep, but even drowsiness would not stop her from attempting to keep her hatchlings safe as she swiped a claw at where she perceived the threats to be. Although, that was a good way off from where they actually stood, Draco and Harry took it as their cue to run and snatch the false egg, retreating to a safe distance as the dragon keepers flooded in and calmed the infuriated and desperately confused dragon. Harry felt almost guilty, as it seemed the wyvern would be about to burst into tears if it were physically possible for her species. No scratch that, he definitely felt guilty. _I didn't sign up for this, _he reasoned futilely with himself, _I didn't want to be part of this._ But he was. And he did this. At least none of the eggs were really damaged. It was a feeble stance but it kept him from running in and trying to talk to the giant flying lizard.

Draco moved his other hand up to grasp onto Harry's, which rested still on his upper arm. "I never, ever, _ever_ am going to let go of your hand _ever again_." He shuddered, remembering what had happened. Harry felt the blood begin to pool under his cheeks, despite knowing that wasn't the way Draco meant it.

"I won't either," Harry reassured the shaken blonde, slightly amused and disturbed that his so called "hero complex" had made him focus more on the wyvern than what had happened to the two of them.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER, I KNOW THIS MUST HAVE BEEN _YOUR_ RECKLESS PLAN! IT HAS THE POTTER NAME WRITTEN _ALL_ OVER IT!" McGonagall screamed as she burst into the arena before the judging could even really start, "OF ALL THE STUPID, LIFE-ENDANGERING PLOTS YOU'VE COME UP WITH, THIS ONE REALLY TAKES THE CAKE! ARE YOU TRYING TO BREAK THE RECORD FOR AMOUNT OF DETENTIONS IN ONE YEAR OR DO YOU REALLY HAVE A DEATH WISH? I'VE NEVER-"

An amplified, kindly voice interjected, "Minerva…"

"What." McGonagall spat angrily before remembering exactly who she was talking to and paled, "Oh, Albus, I'm sorry, these two and their stunts just-"

Dumbledore raised a hand slightly for silence and his eyes twinkled, "It's nice to know how much you care for them, my girl, but perhaps the lectures can wait until they've had a few days to recover from their harrowing experience? I'm sure they were just doing what they could."

"With the multitude of plans they had, they couldn't think of anything safer?" Snape, whose broodingly threatening presence no one had noticed until this moment, drawled venomously.

Harry found himself looking away towards the crowd, where Ron bounced up and down with a blonde Ravenclaw and Seamus beside him, holding a sign that said in big red letters, "DO IT FOR GRYFFINDOR!" alternating with "CHUCK THE FERRET AND RUN!" Ron was so subtle at reminding Harry of his suggestion to throw Draco at the dragon and save himself.

Draco scowled at the entirety of Gryffindors present (somehow excluding Harry) and dragged Harry off to the medical tent set up so they'd be out of the way for Fleur, who was pulling a strand of her own hair agitatedly.

Pomphrey promptly whacked the two of them over the head with her clipboard, each snickering when the other experienced her divine retribution.

"Do the both of you know how extremely imbecilic that little stunt of yours was?" She ground out between clenched teeth.

Suddenly chagrined Harry and Draco shrank down slightly, yet both retained the sense of mind to nod meekly.

"Then you will _never_ do it again, do you hear me?" Pomphrey growled, the sound seeming all the more frightening for coming out of the normally cheery witch.

They nodded mutely once more, afraid to speak in the irate woman's hearing.

A moment of silence passed, and Pomphrey smiled, "Well that's settled, let's take a look at the damage you did to yourselves…" As she cast diagnostic spells in silence, a thought occurred to her, "Oh, and the castle and I have determined what you have…"

Harry fought the nearly overwhelming desire to bludgeon the nurse to death with a bedpan and Draco asked, "What is it?"

Madam Pomphrey pushed them both down on one of the cots that matched the yellowish coloration of the tent, and continued purveying the readouts of her spellwork, "Well, it's called Maldictorius Malfoi," She paused as Harry began glaring in Draco's direction, and corrected, "Malfoi with an 'i' is a combination of 'bad' and 'faith' in French, silly, no need to spread any blame here. It seems to always form around two people who will need each other for their respective goals later on and only disintegrates when any issues between them are worked out and their goals achieved. One such bond formed between Arthur and Merlin back in the day, and my did they fight it!"

"Bond…?" Draco trailed off weakly.

Madam Pomphrey's grin turned a tad sadistic, "Oh yes, I'm sure you've heard of the bonds between soul mates, and wedded couples…" Sighing, and losing her abrupt sadism, she continued, "But your bond isn't like that at all. It isn't even like the bond between twins or enemies. It's generally called The Symbiote Bond, though it isn't as violent as it is with you two. The milder form is actually quite common, and there are even a few in the school who have them. Would you like to attend the support group?"

Harry was sure whether to respond, but chanced it. "Are you joking?"  
"I never joke, I'm a serious person," Madam Pomphrey replied briskly as she hid a bag labeled "PROPERTY OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE: PERSONAL STASH" under the pillow of the cot they were sitting on. "Don't tell Albus that's under there, and get plenty of rest for the next few days. Draco, you'll need to either re-bandage that cut twice a day on your own or come down to the Hospital Wing before breakfast and after dinner with Harry." With that she spelled a set of bandages onto the arm away from Harry and left to attend to Fleur, who limped in from the cheers of the students outside.

"What cut?" Draco muttered, lifting the edge of the bandages and wincing when it seemed to scrape against the gash.

"You mean you didn't realize? The paralysis cut off your pain, too?" Harry asked, concerned despite himself and the thought that it was just a cut was not at all comforting.

"Well, yeah, until now," Draco groused, flinching as his own movements from speaking irritated the wound.

Harry poked the blonde in his uninjured side, "You can do it! Be a man!"

Draco gave the smaller brunette the evil eye and debated whether what he was planning was worth the possible pain. Why… Yes, yes it was. Grabbing the pillow hiding Dumbledore's stash of something with his injured arm, he whacked Harry across the face with it and replaced the pillow calmly back where it had been innocently lying before.

Harry gaped angrily at him before another almost-but-not-quite hidden wince from Draco blew his frustration right out of him. "I guess I kind of deserved that."

"Kind of?"

"Be grateful you're injured."

**That was exactly 2007 words. Exactly three off. T_T**

**What will Fleur's reaction to Draco and Harry's _in_teraction be? Why does my computer always kill the italics? How did Fleur defeat her dragon? How will Cedric and Viktor? Why do I call everyone by their first name?**

**Why do I even ask these questions?**

**Only one person knows, and it's that guy over there with the awesome goatee. Tell me what he's thinking so I can plot against him and push the story back into my plotline.**


	18. Lavish Lavender n Dirty Draco

**2873 words! I was listening to Marilyn Manson's "This is Halloween" over and over again while I was writing this! X] (By the by I add all BOLD words after I type in the amount of words in the chappie)**

**Diss the Claim: Can you believe it? They dismissed my lawsuit to put Harry Potter legally in my custody! Rowling stole my baby! Although she's technically the mother...**

**Dedicated to: Non Innocent Angel of the Naughty Nymph Agency in the Cheerful Cherub division, but I love all my readers with all my nonexistent soul. :) ... =.= ... . I mean my heart. With all my heart.**

Draco sighed in relief as Harry rolled onto his chest. You wouldn't think this was a good reason to be relieved in normal circumstances, but Harry had been sleeping on Draco's injured arm on for the past half an hour now. Hastily pinning Harry in place with his unhindered, albeit injured, arm, Draco thanked luck and all the other things he didn't believe in that Harry had moved when he did.

The bandages were sticking to his arm now from the light sweat that had broken out underneath the layers of the gauzy substance and he didn't want to think of how it'd feel pealing them off the wound for the first time.

Harry tried to roll over again. Draco didn't know how much time had passed, but he'd be willing to bet it had been exactly half an hour. Tightening his grip, he grit his teeth and whispered, "If you're awake, know that moving _one more time_ will end in your involuntary hanging from Gryffindor Tower." Harry stopped trying to move.

Grinning groggily up at Draco and unintentionally digging his chin into the blonde's chest, Harry teased, "You'd miss being crushed?"

Not. In. The. Mood. "Right, or maybe, just maybe, I don't want you to irritate the cut on my arm any more than you already have!"

Harry paused, letting his brain catch up with what was going on, and scrunched up his face in sympathy. Chagrinned, he said, "Ouch, sorry. I'll rewrap it for you so we don't have to go to Pomphrey."

"Are you assuming I couldn't do it myself?" Draco asked harshly.

"Well, with one arm injured, and one hand tied to me, no I don't think you could," Harry snapped in response, "And we have a support group meeting today."

"That was not- We weren't talking about- Never mind, when did you sign us up for this?" Draco gave in, not even attempting to unravel the twisted double-helix that is Harry's mind.

"When you were busy trying to find out what Albus's stash was of," Harry replied, muffled by Draco's shirt, "why are you up so early?"

"You were hurting my arm."

"Ri~ight."

"God, you're hopeless."  
An hour before the Great Hall was officially opened for breakfast, the two fourth years dragged themselves out of bed. As they were dressing, Harry stole Draco's shirt and refused to allow him to put it on until his bandages were changed.

"It'll just get in the way," He explained, "I really hate rolling up sleeves."

"I'll just wear a short-sleeved shirt," Draco whinged, already knowing he wouldn't win this argument.

"But then later on you'd be complaining that you were cold and blaming me," Harry pointed out frankly, forcing Draco to sit down with his free hand. He grabbed the bandages the Come and Go Room so helpfully provided within reach (how convenient) and set them down on his lap. At first, it was slow-going taking off the bandage with one hand, but Draco came up with a solution. With a long-suffering sigh, he put his uninjured hand on Harry's hip where a bit of skin was showing between shirt and pants.

Harry "eep"-ed. "You didn't hear that. And what are you doing?"

"Skin-to-skin contact so you can use both hands," Draco drawled, looking vaguely uninterested.

"It doesn't have to be skin-to-skin Draco, remember when I sat on your lap? It was through two layers of clothing then," Harry trailed off.

Draco blushed a little, trailing his hand down to Harry's knee instead, and his nose went upward even as his eyes darted down. "I knew that." In return for Harry's lack of response, he said nothing about the way Harry stiffened under the Slytherin's touch.

Forcing the tension out of his muscles, Harry made quick work of the bandages left over and tied the new ones on expertly.

"These are not tied as horribly as I was expecting," Draco complimented him suavely.

"Thanks, sire," Harry replied dryly, obviously overcome with gratitude.

"Call me King Draco," Draco quipped, turning the jab into a valued remark to be treasured in his memory forever.

Harry groaned, "I've given you _ideas_."

"_Oh~h_ yeah. Now when is this support group thing?" Draco put Harry's hand on his own knee so he could pull on a shirt.

Harry's fingers drummed anxiously against the pants' material, "During lunch in room 114 right next to Professor Vector's office. Pomphrey said it was either the support group or talking to Snape about our _feelings_." Harry shuddered, his fingers momentarily stilling.

"Uncle Snape's not too bad about feelings. He's intuitive like that," He graciously ignored the face Harry made, "When did she tell you this?"

"I _told _you, when you were snooping around about Professor Dumbledore's-"

"When I was trying to figure out what was in the bag, yes, I remember you telling me not," Draco cut him off impatiently, "You know, you could've told me you knew what was in it."

"That would have ruined your fun," Harry pouted.

"The Headmaster took five points from Slytherin," Draco growled.

Harry got up, beginning to move towards the door, "Well, he thought you took them. He _did _give back points after it was sorted out."

"Three," Draco bit out, unwillingly walking out of the room, "He definitely is more cunning than he seems- batty though he may be-"

"HARRY!" Ron plummeted down not two feet from where they had been seconds ago.

"What was _that_?" Harry exclaimed, kneeling down beside Ron and forcing Draco to bend at an awkward angle. "Are you okay?"

Ignoring Draco's muttered, "I'm shocked, too; a flying weasel!" Ron groaned, "Lavender happened. _Seamus_ lied and told her I'm _gay_ and just _toying_ with her and- you know- a witch scorned…"

Harry patted his head in pity, "Poor little weasel- Ron. Poor little Ron." Draco sniggered.

"I know," Ron bemoaned, completely missing Harry's sarcasm, "And she can get into the boy's dorm since she's a Gryffindor!"

Harry smiled, "You could stay with us for a while. I'm sure the room will- er- provide another room."

"Really?" Ron sat up straight, his eyes crossed, and he fell back down to the floor all while Draco frantically shook his head at Harry, "That's perfect!" Slapping a hand to his forehead, Draco joined Harry on the ground.

It wasn't long however, before Harry was pulling Ron back up to his feet and telling him to use the unaltered Dumbledore-copywritten password Lavish Lavender to get in and to go to Madam Pomphrey at some point for treatment. Ron stumbled down the hallway, crashing into a suit of armor and apologizing profusely before wandering off. Draco mentioned they needed to get to breakfast just as Harry's stomach growled loudly. All thoughts of his poor, confusedly beaten best friends fled from the brunette's head as he near-ran to the Great Hall with Draco in tow.

Breakfast and the classes flew by for Draco, who was desperately hoping they would stand still for a moment or two so that he could resign himself to the impending doom of "support groups." He just knew Harry would try to get him to talk about his feelings on everything…

They were sitting in a stereotypical Mind Healer's office with candles lighting the dark maroon room. Harry adjusted his glasses and they glinted maliciously as he crossed his legs and wrote something down on a clipboard, "So you don't like kittens, Mr. Malfoy? Why don't you tell me how they make you feel?"

"_I just don't like them," Draco restated firmly, "There is no underlying reason."_

"_Well, I think it may be because your father killed a kitten in front of you when you were five. Did that in anyway shape your opinion on kittens?" Harry leaned forward, eerily interested in the answer._

"_It's nothing important," Draco snapped._

_Harry tapped his clipboard with the quill and leaned back, putting both items on the desk beside him, "I'm afraid you're entirely insane, Mr. Malfoy, but the good news is, there _is_ a cure."_

"_Oh really?" Draco drawled, rolling his eyes and deciding to humor the Gryffindor._

_Harry grinned as he stood, "Yes, really." Straddling the blonde and sucking briefly on his bottom lip, he continued, "One dose of me a day." When Draco growled and pulled him closer, Harry purred, "Maybe twice a day." Draco slipped a hand up the back of Harry's shirt-_

Draco shook his head, crossing his legs and sitting up from his slouched position. Harry glanced at him in bored indifference before attempting to pay attention to Minerva's lecture on the laws of animate-to-animate transfiguration and how this was slightly more dangerous than inanimate-to-animate. _I don't want to know where that came from,_ Draco panicked inwardly, _Because it was all lack of sleep and being around Harry all the time. That's it, you know. I don't_ have_ to think about where that came from because it was just sleep deprivation and constantly having Harry with me._ Yup. Sleep deprivation.

Yeah…

"I think it's twice a day, right?" Harry whispered as McGonagall droned on.

Draco started, _How would he know-_

"The bandages, we change them twice a day, right?" Harry repeated curtly, irritated Draco wasn't listening.

_Right, he wouldn't mean-_ Draco chopped that line of thought into little pieces, "Right, why?"

"Just so we don't both forget," Harry shrugged, quickly writing down the homework Minerva began to explain. Draco didn't bother, knowing he could get the notes later from Harry or even the Weasel. Ron was sitting behind them though, and he looked warily at Draco, having noticed the zoned out look on his face and then the sudden, full body jerk into a more… Concealing position.

_I must protect Harry!_ He thought, his inner Ron pumping its fist in the air as its eyes burst into passionate flame. _That Slytherin will_ not _take advantage of him!_ _But…_ how? Ron's eyes alit with an idea as the pair walked out of the classroom.

Unfortunately, Ron's first plan went awry as he sat around waiting for the two students to walk through the Great Hall doors. _And _he missed lunch. Poor Ron.

In room 114, Harry sat down on one of the wooden chairs arranged in a circle around the edge of the room. There looked to be enough chairs for four other pairs plus the chair Professor Babbling was sitting in. Professor Babbling seemed to be asleep with her chin on her ample, yet matronly covered chest. Her hair was in a bun, but strands were falling into her face, and contrasting the blue-black with a milky chocolate brown. A wart was growing out of her chin and seemed to be pointing towards the plain teacher's desk nearby. Draco had an uncomfortable flashback to his fantas- daydrea- _thought_ back in Transfiguration and tried to calm down.

After a few moments of silence, two third year students walked in and sat down, quietly speaking under their breaths to one another. One had bright blue eyes and an unfortunately mannish figure, while the other had eyes the color of stirred up mud with a petite, ethereal build. They softly introduced each other, Gertrude Bulstrode and, surprisingly, Daniel Cornwhistle. The gender-role-reversal let Draco forget the awkward mental position he had put himself in and he began smirking to himself periodically until Harry elbowed him sharply and he wiped his face clean for a few seconds. Although the smirk would, of course, grow back like a weed. Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones arrived soon after and sat without introduction. Fleur Delacour and Luna Lovegood came in shortly and Fleur shot them both a glare before giving Professor Babbling's chair a good kick. As the Professor convulsed slightly upon waking, Fleur sat down without giving her a second glance. Luna patted Fleur's hand and winked at Draco. Draco had to check behind him before hesitantly nodding. Luna beamed and Professor Babbling stood up, finally.

"Well, then, welcome, and welcome back, to the Symbiote Bond support group, I am Professor Babbling, and I will be your overseer today. Some of you may know along with my NEWTS in Muggle Studies, I also received O's on my NEWTS in Mind Healing and went on to retrieve three years of further training before landing a job here as a Muggle Studies teacher. I promise everything spoken here is entirely confidential and will not be repeated or used against any of the participants." She looked directly at Draco, "Do we understand?"

Draco scowled, "I'm not _that _low," and abandoned all plans of future blackmail.

Harry smiled knowingly behind his free hand.

"No one's accusing you of anything, Mr. Malfoy," She soothed, "It's just a warning for our newer members, you see."

"Oh, I see," Draco managed to retort before Harry kicked his ankle. Draco bit his lip and forced back any further repartees.

"Now, let's go around the circle and have everyone share how they're feeling about their bonds today… Gertrude will you start?" Gertrude was sitting next to Babbling and was directly across from Draco. Next to Daniel were Hannah and Susan, while Harry was next to Susan, and Draco was next to Luna. Fleur was on Babbling's other side.

"I'm pretty content with it. I know I didn't like it at first, but today I'm grateful it helped me find a friend," She continued without prompting, not noticing David smiling at her.

"That's very good, I'm glad you're feeling better about it. David?" She nodded at him.

"I feel the same. It sucked at first, but today I just feel so happy it brought me to my best friend," He grinned at Gertrude and she caught it this time, smiling shyly back.

"_Very_ good, I'm so proud of the progress you two are making!" Babbling clapped her hands together in glee, "Hannah?"

"I don't really care about it," She looked away.

"Because…?" Babbling prompted.

"Because we're in the same House anyway, and all we have to do is stay near each other, you know? I don't think it's that big a deal." She directed her last comment to Susan, despite Babbling asking the question.

"O~ookay," Babbling nodded slowly, "Want to shed some light on your side of things, Susan?"

"I hate this stupid bond. It _is_ important, we might be chained together for _life_! I mean, what if we both get married? Are we supposed to stay together, sleep in the same room together, make love and raise our children together? It's not fair!" She, too, had stopped looking at Babbling, and instead was glaring at Hannah.

"I know it seems unfair, but in the long run, this bond is meant to be beneficial for both of you," Babbling elaborated soothingly, "Someday you'll need each other, and there needs to be trust for it to work out. Fate is trying to help you survive."

"What's the point in surviving if you don't get to live?" Susan mumbled so softly only Harry and Hannah heard, nodding and saying aloud, "Thanks, Professor."

Babbling smiled, happy she'd 'helped.' "Harry, what do you feel about your bond with Draco? It's much more severe than the others'."

"Well, I can see where Susan's coming from, about being together our whole life, and I can honestly say that idea scares me, but it's not as scary as when we first were stuck together," Harry admitted casually, "It's not as bad as being chained to say, Crabbe or Goyle."

Draco twitched, remembering Harry's suggestion that he have Crabbe and Goyle switch of back when they didn't know what was going on. Harry caught the twitch and grinned mischievously.

"And you, Draco?" Babbling asked.

Draco paused; Harry had been honest.

…So why did he have to be?

"Oh I'm so happy to be attached at the wrist to Harry," The sarcasm was evident, but it appeared Babbling did not hear it. He suddenly found the truth falling from his lips without his direct consent, "There's no one else I'd rather be stuck with." It was, again, easy to hear the difference between the first and second sentence, but Babbling just moved on to Luna, who ranted on about some Rotfang conspiracy and the end of the blood muffins and how helpful Fleur had been while Harry looked at him. And looked at him. And just plain looked at him.

Finally as Babbling asked Fleur how she was feeling about her bond that day, Harry turned his gaze to the partial veela and squeezed Draco's hand lightly.

Draco had never before realized just how much he loved to see Harry smiling through an ever-deepening blush before and wondered what he'd have to do to make it show up again.

**My, Draco's thinking some naughty little thoughts, ain't he? *blushes and coyly waves hand* I totally was not to blame for that.**

**What will happen when Ron crashes at the Come and Go Room?**

**WHY did Dumbledore pick the password Lavish Lavender?**

**What will Fleur say about her bond with Luna? Why does she even have a bond with Luna?**

**How did Symbiote Bonds get so very common?**

**What are blood muffins?**

**Why is Draco thinking such things about innocent little Harry?**

**And what lengths will Draco go to to make Harry blush?**

**Tell me what you think!**


	19. The People on the Bus Go Back and Forth?

**1727 words. Much more normal. :)**

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel, who brings those Holy Devils to their knees.**

**Diss the Claim: If I could own Harry, I _would_. But I DON'T.**

**Iiiiit's peanut butter jelly time! Peanut butter jel~ly! Peanutbutterjelly, Peanutbutterjelly, Peanutbutterjelly with a baseball bat!**

**And a fat cat on a ratty mat with a patted piece of something it sha- *BEEEEP***

Draco's face morphed into a smirk, "Harry-"

Babbling cleared her throat, bringing the boys attention back to the front of the room, "Fleur is about to speak…?"

"Sorry, Professor," Harry apologized automatically; he grinned sheepishly as Draco grunted and slid back in his chair slightly, feeling vaguely cheated.

"Alright, continue," Babbling chirped, leaning back and directing her gaze to Fleur.

"I feel neutral about the bond, as _usual_, Ms. Babbling," Fleur tapped one finger on the knee crossed over her other leg, leaning lightly on her other hand.

"She's happ-" Luna started before clutching her stomach when Fleur walked stiffly out of the room, "Ow, ow, ow, owwwwwieeeeee!" Luna jumped up and followed her at a half-jog.

"What was that about?" Draco grumbled.

"That was just not right," Harry muttered back, not taking any notice of Draco's remark.

Draco shrugged, "It probably hurt her too, you know."

Harry absently rocked their joined hands, "But I know you'd never do something like that to me just because I said something you didn't want told!"

_Does he even remember who he's talking to?_ Draco knew his whole image was tumbling down everyday he stayed near Harry, but it was literally a life or death situation and- Draco wasn't sure the lack of that factor would change his decision any more.

"Alright, we're going to practice some trust exercises!" Babbling's cheery mood was not to be destroyed as she punched a fist into one hand determinedly, "Mr.'s Malfoy and Potter, I'll think of something different for you, just stay there a second." She turned back to the group as a whole, "Everyone else stand up and find a place with your partner. Once you have I want you to take turns falling back and letting yourself be caught by your bondmate-" Nearly half the room cringed, "-and being the one doing the catching, alright?" The group nervously followed her instructions and Daniel wasn't able to keep poor Gertrude from hitting the floor. At least he'd cushioned her fall.

"That boy needs to work out a bit," Babbling commented.

"Why are there so many of us?" Harry asked now that he sort of had the teacher's attention.

"Bondmates?"

"Stop using that word!" Draco growled.

Babbling and Harry glanced with somewhat surprised expressions at Draco, who looked somewhat shocked himself. Ignoring him, as Draco learned most people did now, Harry nodded and Babbling explained, "I think you-know-who is getting close to finding a way back into the realm of the living, and Magic is acting accordingly."

"That's disturbing," Harry commented blandly.

"Quite. Now then, I'd like you two to… Erm…" They stared blankly at one another for a few moments in silence. "I don't really know. I've never had such an advanced case of the bond in my support group."

"Great," Draco threw his head back and put his hands behind his head, secretly reveling in having Harry's hand in his hair. At least, until Harry slid it down to a more comfortable spot on his thigh and ended his reverie, starting a reenactment in his head of a certain… Erm… Idea gone wrong from earlier…

"Maybe I'll have you two share personal moments?" Babbling suggested hesitantly.

Harry stared at her.

"Oh, too girly, er…." Babbling threaded her slightly stubby fingers together and fidgeted in her seat. "Trust… I've got an idea, but I don't think you'll like it…"  
"Or we could just sit here brainstorming all of lunch. Just tell us what it is and we'll do it," Draco grabbed Harry's hand off his thigh and sat up hastily crossing his legs as he leaned forward in feigned interest. "What is it?"

Harry gave him an amusedly befuddled look before echoing his question to the teacher with a quirked brow.

"You will give each other three favors or wishes that can be absolutely anything, and trust they will not take advantage of that or that they will try to escape your own wishes," Babbling instructed, "And remember you asked for this."

Draco gained actual interest as he thought of what he could ask Harry to do to h- what he could ask Harry to do, but he quickly lost interest as he realized Harry could have that kind of control over him as well, "No."

Babbling raised her eyebrows, "You _did_ ask for this-"

"But it would be detrimental to the trust already between us to hang that kind of temptation over our heads, wouldn't it?" Draco wheedled, eyes wider than usual.

"You're doing it, end of story."

"Draco… Look, okay? Here are my three: say, 'hi Harry,' say, 'how are you today,' and say, 'I hope you're having a good day,' see? Not that bad," Harry ended almost sarcastically.

"Hi Harry, how are you today? I hope you're having a good day," Draco droned, shaking both of Harry's hands as if meeting him for the first time.

"Oh I'm fine, I'm in a support group right now so I can't really talk. Maybe later over dinner?" Harry rolled his eyes.

"Sounds like a date," Draco grinned predatorily, "My three now."

"I took it easy on you," Harry reminded him as Babbling watched with ill-disguised glee.

"Oh fine, say, 'Draco is my favorite Slytherin,' then… say, 'Ron is a Weasel,' and…." Draco had run out of ideas that were tame enough to allow him to escape bruise-free and so he let the first thing that popped into his head slip off the edge of his tongue. "I don't know, hug someone."

"Who would've thought Draco Malfoy would-" Draco mentally dared Harry to finish that sentence and Harry seemed to get the hint. He cleared his throat, "Any particular order?"

"No," Draco replied sourly.

"Ron is a Weasel. This is Draco's opinion," Harry stated matter-of-factly as Draco snorted. Trust Harry to twist it around. Draco blinked twice as Harry leaned towards him and let go of his hand to embrace him in a quick hug, "And Draco is my favorite Slytherin." Harry's fingers left an invisible trail on Draco's arm as they made their way back down to the blonde's hand. Draco swore Harry's eyes were a brighter green than before-

"That's good, boys, I'm glad you two can trust each other," Babbling smiled, "Now it's time for food!"

It didn't take long for the house elves to bring up a meal and it was even quicker in the time it took to disappear. Charms and Potions went by without a hitch despite Snape breathing down Harry's neck more than usual and Ron occasionally staring unblinkingly at the back of Draco's head. Ron caught up with the pair after dinner and deliberately put his head in between theirs. It was just enough to let them keep touching and yet separate them.

"How's it going, Harry?" Ron asked brightly.

"Mind _moving_?" Draco snarled.

"Mate?" Ron prompted with a smile when Harry hadn't answered.

"Erm, Ron aren't you going to answer Draco?" Harry hedged, unsure which side of the argument to take.

Ron narrowed his eyes at Draco, "I _do_ mind actually." He smiled at Harry, "That day I asked you about? How it's going? I'd still like to know?" Ron kept up two nearly opposite conversations almost all the way to the Come and Go Room at which point Draco elbowed him in the gut so he would drop back and pulled Harry flush against his side. Ron sobbed inwardly as Draco took Harry into the Come and Go Room. How could he have failed? Metaphorically wiping away the tears (and snot) Ron stood; he wasn't going to let this little setback stop him! He would protect his little brother's virtue at any cost!

After walking back and forth in front of the wall three times and then speaking the password ("Lavish Lavender" He ground out), he snuck quietly into the room to find Harry, unconcerned about Ron's wellbeing, sitting calmly next to that creepy wanna-be Harry boyfriend! Well! Ron wasn't going to stand for _this_! Ron jumped over the back of the couch and was about to insert himself between the two (allowing them to continue holding hands, of course) when Draco jerked his knee up into the redhead's groin. Harry's free hand covered the lower half of his face.

He let one eye slowly open, "You okay, Ron?"

Ron staggered from the floor on trembling legs and gave Harry a feeble grin and a shaking thumbs up, "I'm-" His eyes rolled back into his head and he fell onto the medical cot the room provided in the nick of time.

"Pansy," Draco muttered, flipping the page of the book half on his lap, and half on Harry's.

"Don't bring her into this," Harry growled. Draco glanced up in surprise.

"I was _calling _him a pansy," he explained patiently.

"Still." Harry continued, "It was jerk-like, seeing as _you_ did this to him."

Draco waved it off, "He'll be fine."  
Harry's face shadowed, "Want to try it and find out?"

Draco covered his exposed lap with his free hand, "I'm good."

"No, really," Harry pouted as if it'd be doing them both a favor.

"I'm really, _really _sure I don't want to try it," Glancing at the clock as it struck nine he forced a yawn, "I'm beat, let's go to bed early…"

"You're helping me carry Ron to the new guest room first."

"Damn."

When they finally got Ron into the guest bed, they swiftly changed Draco's bandages and fell face first onto their own bed. Draco groaned.

Harry turned his head so one of his eyes could open and see Draco, "What?"

"I could've had you call me King Draco for one of my wishes!"

"…Shut up."

Draco slipped his arms around Harry and was glad Harry was either not awake enough or didn't care enough to question or stop him. Neither noticed they hadn't tied their hands together before falling asleep.

**How did the other champions defeat their dragons?**

**When will Harry and Draco remember to use their golden egg?**

**What will the second task be? (not canon)**

**Will this night have far-reaching consequences?**

**What's up with Ron?**

**What's up with Harry's moral compass?**

**No seriously, what is UP with Harry's MORAL COMPASS?**

**Anyway, tell me what you think so I can see where I've been deceiving you!**

**GM- *coughnowherecough*  
I heard that goatee man, I heard that...**


	20. Ron goes Rabid and Leaping Leprechauns!

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel. You know, if Non is a name, (like Nonette or something) it could read, "Nonette: Innocent Angel" and ruin the carefully planned oxymoron apparent in the name T_T**

**Diss the claim: Claim, you soooo tiny, you don't even know you tiny, you just think the continents all breathe! *ba da -BAD* I am not making any money off of this (*sobs*) and all rights belong to JKR and whoever she may have sold them to.**

"What are you _doing?_" Harry screeched (in the most manly possible way).

Draco had no clue why he was being verbally assaulted this early in the morning. _Harry_ was the one clutching his pajama shirt so tightly he was frightened pieces of fabric would come away from the shirt when Harry finally let go. He didn't _seem_ mad at Draco; he wasn't even looking at him! Draco registered orange in his peripheral vision. Ron was hovering over the two of them on his knees.

"Quiet, Harry! Don't wake the ice demon!" Ron had slight circles under his eyes and a manic glint played about in them. "I'm going to keep you safe!"

"What have you been _taking_?" Draco's sneer was not nearly as threatening as it would have been had it not been buried in Harry's hair. "Indulging in the pixie dust, Weasel?" Draco was sure Ron had finally cracked. _What a _pity_, _Draco 'mourned' to himself, _He won't understand my insults as well as if he were sane._

The two Gryffindors reacted instantaneously, "Stop calling him/me that!" Ron developed a facial tick as he spoke, his tone seemingly calmer than Harry's.

"He's just a blood traitor," Draco groaned dismissively.

"Let's see how much blood I can betray!" Ron grinned nastily, not making a smidgen of sense. It seemed he had been up all night. Draco was inclined to say sleep deprivation did _not_ agree with him.

Harry shoved Ron off onto the floor and, in a decidedly panicked manner, threw the golden egg on the bedside table down after him. After a solid sounding "thump" of gold against flesh, Harry covered his mouth with one hand, "Oh god, Ron, mate, you okay?" He shook his head, "I don't know why I did that!"

"I'm... Okay..." The voice cracked a bit, but was otherwise believably stable.

"That's good," Harry sighed. He started, a crease between his eyebrows as he propped himself up on his elbow to see Draco better, "Wait, did you just call him-"

"I can call him whatever I-" Draco snapped his mouth shut in a display of his hidden intelligence at Harry's deadly glare.

"Our _truce_," he all but growled.

Draco frowned, but nodded, trying to go back to sleep.

Harry, however, had other ideas. "No, don't sleep! We still haven't looked at the egg yet!"

Ron rose unsteadily from the side of the bed and deposited said egg onto their stomachs.

"Thanks, Ron," Harry said distractedly, already trying to open the egg.

Ron saluted hazily. Harry ran his hand along the cool golden surface and searched for a catch or handle. The entire egg was perfectly smooth save for three raised lines from the bottom to the top of the egg, ending in a golden sunburst design. Draco suddenly reached around Harry, bringing his chest half against Harry's back. Harry froze.

"Why aren't you paralyzed and I all- er- floaty?" He started. "Well, why _weren't_ yo- Weren't we just- not touching?"

Draco drummed his fingers against the juncture just above Harry's hip where they'd been all along and tried not to laugh at the chagrined, scrunched up face Harry made. "Look," Draco tapped the sunburst with a bit of force and Harry realized the design could move independently of the egg. His attention zeroed in on the design as he fiddled with it, turning it first one way, then another. Ron, on Harry's other side, pulled himself painstakingly onto the bed and Draco played with the idea of pushing him off again just to see him flail, but there was no guaranteeing Harry would stay mesmerized for long. There was a sudden click and Draco turned his attention back to the egg. The lines down the sides of the egg lit up with a bluish glow and the egg broke open into three equal portions. The three fourth years leaned forward eagerly to see what was inside.

...Well.

It certainly wasn't _that_.

"Oy, a countryman o' mine!" The little leprechaun looked like a slightly more attractive gnome with bright red hair and dark brown coveralls, "Cousin!" He launched himself at Ron and climbed up the back of his head to nest in his similarly coloured hair.

Ron began to cry.

"Eh, what's wrong, laddie?"

Ron sniffed a bit and the floodgates broke. "I'm... I'm just so tired, and Lavendar hates me and Harry won't let me protect him and Draco's going to steal his innocence and now I- I didn't even know I was a leprechaun!"

Despite the utter ridiculousness of the situation, Draco felt a little sorry for the poor chap.

"Who's this 'Draco?'" The leprechaun asked fiercely, "I'll gi' 'im what for!" He mimed a few punches, clinging to Ron's hair with his toes.

"The stupid ferret," Ron muttered sleepily.

_Well, thank the gods that little phase of pity passed quickly_, Draco mused as Harry dragged him into the bedroom in an attempt to get Ron to go to sleep.

"We'll tell Madam Pomphrey to send you a dreamless sleep potion if you're still up at lunch," Harry cautioned, "We need to stop there anyway to get Draco's new bandages."

"I'd almost forgotten about that," Draco put in as they moved towards the bedroom door.

The leprechaun called out just before they crossed the threshhold, "Oy, don'tcha want ya clue?"

Harry was back at the bed before anyone could blink, and Draco wondered that he hadn't felt any pull, but somehow ended up there himself. There was a glint in Harry's eye as he responded. "Yes, can you tell me it?"

The leprechaun motioned for them to lean in, "It's..." He looked from side to side warily, then abruptly tweaked their noses, "ME!"

Leaving the happy little man in peals of laughter, Draco and Harry stalked from the room.

Well, Draco stalked- Harry was laughing, too.

**The universal law of "Harry and Draco cannot be happy at the same time" may or may not have been ultimately proven...**

**Well, except for the lovey dovey scenes, but that's not really "happy"...**

**...**

**Ah phooey.**


	21. Only Thing To Fear Is

**Dedicated to that deathly decadent cheerful cherub, Non Innocent Angel. Or... NIA! So... So close to MIA...**

**Diss the Claim: Velcome... To my hoh-mble ah-bode! *ceiling falls in* Iz true, I do nah-t earn the monies from theez.**

"What about a leprechaun could possibly be a clue?" Ron mused as he attempted to detangle the little bugger from his hair. He hadn't slept very well for- well a week. First the worry for Harry and- ugh- Malfoy in the Tasks, then that horrible letter from his mum about getting his grades in Potions and History of Magic up that had turned out to be a prank from the twins, and then...

"I can't tell ye, laddy," The leprechaun bemoaned, "I would if I could, see. Anything for a fellow countryman, but I woul'n't live if I tried ta go up 'gainst that there Dumblydore."

Ron sat up in the curiously purple bed he'd found himself in when he awoke. He'd recognized it as another bedroom in the Room of Requirement due to the horrid color scheme and had remembered enough of Harry's threat to sleep through dinner. The leprechaun climbed around the back of his head like a spider to hang from his other ear. Ron quickly detached him and put him down on the bed in front of him. Ignoring the muttered, "Destroyin' me fun, 'e is..." Ron asked, "Can you tell me if I'm getting close?"

The little hominid carefully thought this over and brightened considerably, "By Jove, I think I can!"

Ron and the leprechaun cheered for this sudden break through merrily and the leprechaun began to dance around Ron as Ron danced in place at the unfamiliar feeling of triumph (at least when not connected with a chess game).

This is what Harry peeked in on a minute or so later and giggled in a most un-manly manner. Shocked at himself, he cleared his throat and gave a low, rumbly chuckle. Draco, meanwhile, was trying not to cry from the effort he was expending stifling his hysterical laughter at Harry's double reaction.

"Oh, shut up, Draco," Harry gave in and grinned, nudging Draco's shoulder with his own.

"Didn't say anything," Draco asserted innocently.

"Uh-huh," Harry replied dubiously.

"COLD!" A Scottish brogue shouted from the guest bedroom. "OH, E'EN COLDER! ICY!"

Draco and Harry shared an odd look before fully entering the room. The leprechaun was dangling off the back of Ron's head, with his toes gripping the snarl-holds he'd created towards the top.

"Erm, Scotland?" Ron guessed helplessly.

"Oh, I'm gettin' freezerburn, lad!" The wee man gesticulated wildly enough that he fell out of the snarl-holds and down onto the bed.

"What _are_ you doing?" Draco sat down on the bed with one eyebrow inching its way over the other as the leprechaun scurried back up Ron.

"I second that," Harry agreed as he plopped down on the bed and inadvertantly shook the leprechaun's hold enough for him to drop once again, "Sorry."

"Eh," The red-haired midget waved it off and took a flying leap to Ron's shoulder.

The only brunette in the room started off a one-man round of applause, "That was impressive!"

As the little leprechaun bowed and blew kisses to the "crowd," Ron answered Draco's almost forgotten query, "I was guessing what a leprechaun could mean as a clue, 'cause he can't just tell us, but Professor Dumbledore didn't say anything about telling us if we're _close_."

Draco stared at the Gryffindor redhead in shock (_He has a _brain_?_) while Harry abandoned the clap on the shoulder at the last second for a proud handshake, "That's my chess-master best mate!"

Ron beamed at the praise, "Well, Sean helped."

"Sean?" Harry and Draco echoed.

"Yes?" The small creature popped its own head out from behind Ron's.

"Ah, nothing," Harry hastily amended.

"Alright, then," Sean disappeared to re-find his precious snarl holds.

"Hey, Sean, what about four-leaf clovers?" Ron's eyes near-seized as he tried to roll them back enough to see the leprechaun.

"I'm shiverin'. I think I got an icicle drippin' off me nose."

"How about er, the color red?" Harry volunteered.

"Are ye _tryin'_ ta gi' me frostbite?"

"Fool's gold?" Draco offered disinterestedly, observing the way his fingers looked corpse-pale when entwined with Harry's.

"An' now I'm on fire!" Sean crowed. Everyone perked up and gave the leprechaun their attention.

"Is it some kind of trick?" Harry asked eagerly, "A puzzle?"

"Er, ye were warmer on the first one."

"The second Task is about courage, though; not trickery," Draco pointed out confusedly, having actually paid attention to their short briefing after the Goblet had selected them.

"So... Some sort of terrifying illusion?" Ron scratched out one of the leftover snarl holds on the side of his head.

"Blazin' hot! My, I think I may melt!" Sean swooned dramatically on the top of Ron's head. He opened one eye, "Though not as hot as it could be."

"Is it a spell?" Harry's grip on Draco's hand had tightened in his excitement and now he leaned forward, eyes sparkling.

"Cooler. I can breathe easy now, not nearly as humid."

"A cursed artifact?" Draco mused aloud.

"Eh, warmer than before, but not quite as warm. Still sorta comfy. Oh!" Sean jumped, nearly upsetting his precarious balance on Ron's head, which he managed to recover by digging his talon-ended fingers into Ron's scalp.

"What'd you do that for?" Ron yelped, swatting ineffectually at the air around the leprechaun. Sean was still staring dazedly off into the distance, though.

"Ron, I think something's wrong with him," Harry edged closer with his eyebrows frowning worriedly for him.

Sean suddenly shook his head into a blur for a second and refocused on his surroundings, "I ain't sayin' that!"

"Saying what?" Draco insisted, bringing his free hand down on the bed for emphasis.

"Dumblydore ga' me some cockamamie poem to gi' ye, but I ain't sayin' it!" Sean's face was crinkled like a dried up apple and he crossed his little arms over his chest with a humph, "It just is sayin' that ye'll have an hour to get back what they take, and ye'll hafta face yer darkest self, on'y more flowery wordin' and hippogriff shit mixed in."

Ron barked out a laugh at his phrasing but Harry sobered completely, "What will they take?"

Sean twitched, and adopted an over-exaggerated "proper" British accent, "..._To recover what you most hold dear, you'll face the you inside you fear..._"

Ron's strangled laughter was the only sound for a good minute as Draco and Harry attempted to digest this.

"So basically, we're just facing our fears to get back some object they think we treasure?" Harry summarized with an unreadable scowl on his face.

"I can't talk. I've burned ta ashes," Sean informed from his sprawled eagle position on Ron's head.

"That's a load of bunk," Harry crossed his arms, "How can they just take, say, a family heirloom without any permission from the family as a whole?"

"The Goblet's a contract, Harry; basically they can do whatever they want with us under the directives of the Tournament," Draco clenched and unclenched his free hand irritably.

"How is it so easy to enter someone into a contract like this? I mean, it probably wasn't even my signature!" Harry groaned, putting his hands (plus one of Draco's) over his face.

Draco looked away and told himself there was absolutely nothing wrong with noticing how soft someone's cheek was when the back of your hand was being pressed against it. It was just a simple, ordinary, everyday observation. Just a little mental note...

"Well, it'd be easy to tear your name off some returned homework or something," Ron voiced, causing Draco to jump mentally and scold himself for getting lost in thought, "But what I'd like to know is why this happened now?"

"Dumblydore thought a leprechaun was too obscure of clue an' convinced the others to let him send out a less obscure _poem_," Sean spat in distaste, "See the egg linked all us leprechaun 'volunteers' to each other an' Dumblydore."

Harry frowned, dropping his hands and Draco's down to his lap, "Aren't you a voluntee-"

Draco cut him off, stumbling over his own words in order to do so, "Ah- I, er, yes. So, the fool's gold refers to the illusion of whatever we fear and the object we want back?"

"Er, yes?" Sean responded waveringly.

"There's more to it?" Harry suggested, eyes wide.

"Well, ye've mostly got it figured out, hafn't ye? So, le's just leave it at that..." Sean retreated warily to the back of Ron's skull.

"I can't lay down if you're back there," Ron reminded him. "And that reminds me, what did you tell the teachers?"

"I told them you had died of the dragonpox and needed to adjust to life as a ghost for a day or so before you came back to classes," Draco drawled, looking down at and straightening his tie one-handedly.

Ron changed like a chameleon to a brilliant scarlet, "WHAT? WHY WOULD YOU-"

"Ron!" Harry grabbed his hand, "Relax, he didn't say anything like that. I just told the professors that you arrived at our room last night looking like death warmed over twice and needed to sleep 'cause of the harassment you were facing back at the Tower." Draco eyed where Ron and Harry's limbs were still attached calculatingly and shifted just enough so Harry had to let go or risk falling over.

"Oh, er, yeah." The crimson bloomed even brighter across his face as he realized he'd fallen for Draco's trick so easily. "When did I start believing Malfoy?"

"I'm just amazing like that," Draco dismissed.

Harry dug through his book bag as he spoke, "Well, I got your homework from the classes I have with you, but you're going to need to get the DADA homework yourself, sorry." Retrieving the parchment he was looking for he handed a small stack to the Weasley boy in front of him.

"Gee, thanks, Harry," Ron moaned, "I should get started..."

"It's not like it's due tomorrow!" Harry joked, "Procrastinate more!"

"Yeah..." Ron threw the papers behind him and Sean leaped down to begin the construction of his homework fort, "I guess I'll do it the morning it's due."


	22. Fear Itself

***steps into wrestling stadium and pulls on a referee striped jacket* Dedicated to... NON! INNOCENT! ANGEEEEEEEEL! *adorable looking little girl enters the ring* *crowd stops cheering in confusion***

**Diss the Claim: If Kitty owned the precious, she would claim it, yes she would, but no the Kitty cannot own the precious, and must keep it away! Keep it away!**

_So some sort of fear-illusion... _Harry mused haltingly, unconsciously digging his nails into Draco's hand. Draco winced but otherwise made no movement to correct the situation.

After Sean had been ever-so-helpful in determining the true essence of the clue, the two TriWizard contestants and Ron had spent many a sleepless night in the library trying to figure out what exactly would be in the Second Task.

They had narrowed it down to four different possibilities.

The first, and seemingly least likely, was the Darghult Amulet, named after its original and seemingly only unaffected master. The Darghult Amulet was well known for the "mysterious" suicides of its masters, often during a babbling paranoia and near constant, morbid hallucinations. Ron argued that it couldn't be used because Dumbledore wouldn't let the Champions be in that much danger, although Harry believed it took more than say, a day, for the Amulet to reach that stage. Draco seconded Ron's opinion, which shocked _everyone_ involved, with a different line of reasoning- the amulet was not indestructible and to use something that expensive when it could be so easily broken was a complete recipe for disaster.

The second possibility was a dementor. Ron objected to this for obvious reasons: "Dumbledore wouldn't let anything capable of sucking out your soul that near a student!" Harry laughed and pointed out the Ministry already had. Harry was relatively unworried about this option, seeing as he could now unleash a fully formed patronus on their wispy butts, but Draco was skeptical of the ability and unwilling to just let go of that particular worry too easily. On the other hand, Draco believed that using a dementor didn't make too much sense since the worst moment of your life was not necessarily something to be feared, and the level at which people are affected was not based on how brave they are but how many bad memories they had.

The third option they'd discovered was a simple boggart. Harry, however, thought this was too easy since they had all learned the "Riddikulus" charm in third year. If it could be banished so simply, what would it be doing in a seventh year Tournament? Draco conceded the point but kept it on the list anyway-and Ron promptly crossed it out three times.

The fourth and most likely option was the Atlantis Jade. The legend of the Jade was that it had been gifted to a young king of Atlantis on the day of his crowning for its peculiar natural spherical shape and near invulnerability. Unfortunately, the young man, originally idealistic and bright, soon was twisted by the wars and darker duties of a king into a bitter, paranoid person with no resemblence to the kind child he'd once been. Despite his cruelty, or perhaps because of it, the king retained his strategic mind and brought a third of the world under his tyrannical rule. His wife despaired as she saw what was, for her, the final signs that he had gone too far to be saved. Her botched assassination attempt, however, was the last event that trully threw him off the edge. With his gut still bleeding from his own wife's knife, the king of Atlantis cracked the Atlantis Jade in half with the blood splattered knife and furiously slammed the smaller of the two into the floor, using it as a focus for his magic to pull his city down with him into the last embrace of death. Hundreds of years later, the larger half of the stone was found, only identifiable by its weakness to blood and perfectly smooth outer appearence, including the only reported damage the stone had sustained. Now the Jade was kept under lock and key somewhere in the British Isles, since the stone could cause in its holder that same paranoid madness the last king of Atlantis had struggled with his entire reign. Draco didn't believe at first they would use something that rare, but was reminded forcibly that the Jade was almost completely invulnerable, so the only issue would be its loss or theft, btoh of which were unlikely to occur with hundreds of spectators.

Harry snapped his attention to the present as the Magical Games and Sports Director called for the Champions to follow him from the large entrance hall. Draco breathed a sigh of relief as Harry returned from his thoughtful reverie and eased the pressure of his nails without any outward (or inward, though Draco was unaware) realization. They hurried after Diggory, the last to exit the tall wooden doors facing the lake and Forbidden Forest.

The four contestants were all in the middle of their very own little spazz attacks as they bypassed the lake and walked straight towards the Forbidden Forest.

"Hey," Harry breathed, nudging Draco with their joined hands to get his attention, "We've got one up on them this time."

The pointy-faced blonde rolled his eyes pointedly, though the tight grip of his hand belied his nerves. "And how exactly is _that?" _Draco eyed his partner warily, "If you say some shit about how 'we've got each other' so help me Merlin..."

Harry pouted, the expression coming across as petulant rather than cute, "But Drakie, I thought we had something special!" Harry grinned before shaking his head, "But actually, it's because we've both been in the Forest before."

"Oh yeah," Draco's face transformed, the wariness disappearing to be replaced by a quiet twitch, "Why the hell did you just stand there when the freaky caped thing appeared?" Harry snickered and Draco continued with a bit more fire in his voice, "And who sends first years after a _unicorn killer_ anyway!"

"The same people who make fourth years compete in the TriWizard Tournament," Harry commented dryly. Wondering if Draco had ever or would ever figure out that "the freaky caped thing" had been Voldemort. Or rather, "Quirrel with New Volders Attachments!" Taking that train of thought a bit further, how many purebloods would follow, or even really respect, Voldemort if they knew he'd been an ugly face parasite on the back of a former Muggle Studies teacher's head? Harry had the mental image of Hermione crossing her arms and sitting on the plaintiff's side in a muggle courtroom with a firm "I rest my case" as Voldemort fired and "Crucio"-ed his lawyer. _Hermione..._

"You know," Draco's eyes spanned the crowd with an odd look on his face, "I haven't seen the Weasel all morning."

"Maybe he was avoiding the ferret."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Anyway," Draco mentally waved off whatever Harry had muttered with that overly dramatic eyeroll earlier and continued, "I would have thought he'd be bugging you right up until he was kicked out by the judges." Harry stopped his tiltawhirl mindset and focused on what Draco had pointed out. _Where _was_ Ron?_ It wasn't like the boy to just disappear when his friends (or friend, singular, in this case, as Ron had made over-exaggeratedly clear to Harry and Draco) were walking into, basically, a fight for their lives. Ron's loyalty was the only thing remotely stronger than his pettiness. _Well,_ Harry rationalized guiltily, _It's not really pettiness as it is an inferiority complex due to his several older, more successful brothers._ But, to the point of the matter, Ron _should have_ been there; with _his_ type of personality, he would probably rather rush into the Task and finish it _for_ them rather than leave them to it without even support from the sidelines.

Harry turned back towards the depths of the Forest, "Well, first we'll survive. _Then_ we'll track him down.

* * *

Harry turned towards the Forbidden Forest with a determined stance and said something to Draco. She strained to hear, but could only catch his strong tone.

_How will they get out of this alive?_ She wrung her hands together, wishing she could have been there to help them. Even that stupid Malfoy, at this point. _Why _wasn't_ I there to help them?_

She watched as they brought out a heavily ornamented box and revealed a green stone sphere that seemed to have had about a third of it split off with a perfectly clean cut. Her hands flew to her mouth, _that thing caused the downfall of _Atlantis_ and they're using it in this foolish _Tournament! Helplessly, she examined it with all the morbid curiousity of watching a trainwreck in progress. Each contestant was to start in order of points, since there was only one stone and they would have to each use it. Harry (and Malfoy) were in third place. They were to drop the stone if they could no longer continue on and they (and the Jade) would be transported back to the starting point. There was a short explanation of something like a reverse portkey that most likely flew over all four contestants' heads. This also handily made it so they must be holding the Jade the entire Task, or fail. Her wide eyes were glued to each contestant as they entered the Forest and she stood stock still for the next two hours. Fleur Delacour had passed with ease, coming back just in time, but for some reason or another Cedric Diggory returned to the starting point after half an hour with haunted eyes. Harry and Draco, sitting on the grass stiffly, stood as their names were called and she felt a desperation of a sort grip her as they neared the Forest's shadow.

"Harry James Potter!"

* * *

Harry turned at the mention of his name, fingers millimeters away from the Jade. His eyes widened as he was treated to the sight of Hermione gripping the bottom of her skirt with white knuckles, and tears streaming down her face.

Harry didn't hesitate, "Yeah, Hermione?"

Hermione bit her lip to stifle a sob and took a breath to collect herself, "You better come back safe."

Harry's lips twitched, getting the general gist of it but not hearing the whole sentence, "What was that?"

"You... You better come back safe or I will never even look over your essays ever again!" Hermione cried, eyes shut tightly.

Harry grinned, snatching up the Jade, "I better do that, then," and dragged Draco off into the Forest, not once looking back as Hermione collapsed onto her knees on the cold, leaf scattered dirt.


	23. Jaded

**This actually is not as funny a chapter as usual. I blame the Atlantis Jade.**

**Diss the claim: Under the fair use... Yeah, I have no claim on this and I am not making any money on it.**

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel. 0oc= (look at it sideways... The 0 is a halo anddd... :D =.=)**

**Shout out to GirlWhoLovesYourProfileStory: :) You're cool. X3**

"Point me, mysterious object," Draco intoned, after several minutes of wandering deeper into the shadowy depths of the forest. They knew they were supposed to be retrieving something from the center of the Forbidden Forest, but they didn't know what, and after walking for a while, they'd realized there was no way to keep to a straight line in the dense undergrowth.

Both boys looked in surprise as the wand in Draco's hand spun slightly to the right of the direction they'd been walking in. The jade piece was small enough to fit in one's palm, and they had it between their joined hands to free up their wand hands for casting.

"I didn't really expect that to _work,"_ Draco mused happily, "I must be a charms prodigy."

"Right," Harry consented dubiously, eyes darting as he tried to watch everywhere at once. The multitude of shadows seemed to flicker around the edges of his vision and it was wearing on his nerves. Every time he'd think he'd caught one, the image would be gone and leave him doubting he'd seen it in the first place.

"This must be a more direct way to the center of the fores- stop!" Draco yanked Harry back as the brunette made to step forward and they both tumbled back onto the ground. Long leaves hanging from the branches above stopped just six feet from the ground before them. Harry didn't see much danger in it. Even as he was watching, the leaves shook as if being pushed aside and suddenly a child appeared from between them, sitting on one of the lower branches.

Harry furiously tried to get to his feet, "We have to help-"

"No," Draco pulled Harry back to the ground, stating firmly, "Look at it; it's just a lure!"

"A lure?" Harry repeated incredulously. The boy looked filthy, but surprisingly in shape for supposedly being lost in the forest. His long, dark hair fell away from his uplifted face like a dirty, stringy curtain. His eyes were brimming with tears, but... He was inhumanly still, without fidgeting as he leaned against the trunk of the tree. It didn't breathe. Harry inhaled sharply, his hand clenching about his wand as he spotted a pulsing, yellow-green appendage half-hidden by the long, man-sized leaves growing out of the lure's back. "You're saying that was always part of the plant?"

Draco grimaced, "Not... Always, Harry, but we can't help now; it's just a corpse."

Harry looked away from the body and half-heartedly helped Draco to his feet, "I definitely don't remember _that_ in Herbology."

"You wouldn't, we haven't learned about it yet. We have a couple of them in the woods around the Manor," Draco said without thinking and then winced at how it must sound.

"Cozy," Harry muttered caustically as they bypassed the leaves, which covered quite a large area of space and seemed to be bringing them well out of their way.

The plant appeared to be "chasing" them with the lure and the two picked up speed, "_Quite_."

"Oh sod it!" Harry shouted as the lure that had been chasing them around the edges of the plant was thrown directly into their path, straining the line considerably. He threw a cutting curse at the pale green "stem" in a fit of frustration and it sliced clean through. The body fell with an offsetting splat, the stem writhing and pushing out massive quantities of a clear, goopy fluid that smelled like formaldehyde before being pulled back into the mass of leaves.

"That was absolutely disgusting," Draco complained as they picked their way around the expanding puddle, looking at Harry as a thought occurred to him, "And very unlike you..."

"What do you mean?" Harry growled, the shadows taunting him capturing most of his attention, "I just couldn't let that plant keep on exploiting that little boy's body."

"I mean that I think the jade can't affect two people at once," Draco spelled out seriously, his brows furrowed, "And that you're more susceptible to it than I."

"I'm fine!" Harry spat, turning towards Draco heatedly before pausing, shocked at his own outburst. Taken aback, Draco opened his mouth to speak but Harry cut him off in a low voice, "Don't. You're right. Sorry." Draco's teeth clicked as he shut his mouth warily and Harry rolled his eyes, only then recognizing the anger and fear pushing at his emotions as foreign. "We should hurry. We've lost time."

"Fine by me," Draco too casually agreed as they transitioned into a jog, still following Draco's wand.

Harry watched him, hesitantly ignoring the shadows' blatant mocking glimpses to try and catch his eye. When several minutes passed with nothing more dangerous than some cornish pixies, a will-o-wisp, and a kelpie trying to lure them into a bog and Draco still avoided Harry's gaze, he snapped, "Oh come off it, you know it's just the jade talking! It's not like I'm suddenly dangerous!"

"Well..." Draco drew out the word, collecting his thoughts as he glanced around the clearing they were passing through to double check for any creatures. He sighed and met Harry's glare solemnly, "I thought we'd be at an advantage with two people, but... Er, just remember I'm on your side in this; try to focus your paranoia on the forest." He did a double take at an oddly shaped stump before carefully circumnavigating the both of them around it.

"I knew it! You think I'd hurt you!" Harry accused, rage and hurt playing off one another in his mind. Draco didn't answer as they climbed precariously over a downed tree trunk nearly as wide as they were tall.

"Not usually, Harry," Draco denied carefully. OUt of the blue, he snapped his head to the left, "Stop! I see something."

The Gryffindor fumed silently as Draco concentrated on whatever was approaching on the left, where Draco's wand was pointing. Quietly, the blond cancelled his Point Me spell and stood, legs spread, wand at the ready as all his senses narrowed in on the rustling he could now hear as it got closer.

_Bet he never really trusted me. He was probably just waiting all along until I dropped my guard to stab me in the back._

A strange clacking preceded the creature.

_Look at him; can't even meet my eye. Probably using the jade as an excuse. I'd never have hurt him! I'm the most non-violent, not slimy guy I know!_

Four eyes glinted, momentarily revealing the thing's location before they disappeared just as Draco fired off a stunning spell.

_He's such a bastard! He's gonna get me when I least expect it and all because I trusted him... I don't want to die..._

Draco's breath came quickly as his eyes frantically searched for any reappearence.

_Unless I get him first..._

Draco bit back a swear, hissing, "Seriously, Harry, if you don't ease off the pressure you're going to break my hand. I get that you're freaked that the stone's messing with you, but right now we have to focus on the- giant spider!" Draco sent off another stunning spell directly over Harry's shoulder and a large, hairy Aragog-miniature scuttled along the branch near his head. Harry turned so they were both facing the threat in astonishment; if Draco hadn't just scared it back, his head could easily have been torn off by those dripping mandibles.

_I could be _dead_ right now... _Draco_ would be dead right now._

The two boys shot off a barrage of spells and the spider danced around them like some half-drunk acrobat, flipping and stumbling over, under, and around the stream of progressively dangerous lights as they began to gain in desperation what they were losing in patience.

_Draco bloody saved me,_ A wave of suspicion rose in him and Harry clutched the thought desperately as a shield against it- _Draco doesn't want me dead- _acidentally sending off an over powered bone breaker curse that seemed to explode over the area in front of him, cracking the spider's exoskeleton, but not doing much more damage as the spell had been diluted by its own spreading.

The spider gave a chittering hiss, backing off and scurrying away into the trees.

"Brilliant," Draco panted, "That'll teach it."

"We- must be getting close," Harry got out between deep breaths, "Aragog's nest is- towards the middle- of the forest."

"_You named it?_"

"No, Aragog- yes; whatever. We're close," Harry fought down the slimy feeling emotions slinking surreptitiously through the cracks his frustration created, "And the jade is _really_ distracting me so keep an eye out."

Draco eyed him worriedly and they set off, near scrambling, through the bushes and... Hopefully mud, as Draco recast the Point-me spell (this time specifying "middle of the forest" rather than "mysterious object" as it appeared it was leading them towards Aragog's nest) to confirm their direction.

It wasn't long before they came upon a clearing where Draco's wand spun erratically, signifying the end of their trek. More telling was the conspicuous, giant cardboard box in the middle of the large clear area.

"Open me," Draco stated, the end of his odd message sliding higher in pitch like a question. Harry raised his eyebrows at the taller boy and he scowled, gesturing to the box, "It's written on it."

"Oh," Chagrinned, Harry turned back to the problem at hand, "Should we open it?"

Draco favored him with a particularly scathing look.

"It _could_ be cursed," Harry commented spitefully, but Draco ignored him but for a quiet huff and threw the box open one-handedly. A whirr of something flew out, expanding as it did so into a dark, wispy shape that refocused and soldified into a dementor. "Boggart," Harry hissed, "Riddikulus!"

"Uncle Vernon" appeared and promptly began screaming as the dementor moved to suck his soul out.

Harry caught himself after one dark laugh and remarked tonelessly, "My, I'm feeling vindictive today."

Draco stared at him like he'd grown another head as they knelt to retrieve whatever object was "held most dear" to Harry (seeing as Draco was only competitor-by-association) with "Vernon's" heavy breathing and intermittent screams of terror bouncing off the ancient trees, scaring off (and probably attracting, as well) a variety of wildlife magical and mundane. There really wasn't a lot of mundane left in the Forbidden Forest though; they had a strange tendency to be eaten or abruptly drop dead of unknown causes.

Harry lifted out his Invisibility Cloak and Draco sucked in a breath.

"Is that..." Draco started reverently, temporarily oblivious to "Vernon's" struggles. Currently, he was trying to force the dementor away with force alone. It seemed to be working.

"Yeah, my dad left it to me," Harry confirmed irritably as he reached for the yellowing parchment that had fallen out of it. _How did they even _get_ this?_

"I've been harping on my father about getting me one for _years_ and he's had no luck; of course you'd just get one _passed down_ to you. I don't know why I'm surprised," Draco looked upward for divine redemption in the form of his own cloak and, receiving none, muttered about how atheism was sounding better and better as time went on.

Completely tuning out Draco's whinging, Harry looked over the parchment and unfolded it awkwardly, manipulating his fingers in ways they were not used to in order to open it with the one hand he had available from hanging his cloak over his shoulder. It read, "Harry, couldn't portkey charm your cloak, not sure why, so I did it to this paper instead. I'm very much craving a good blood pop right about now and I'm not quite sure why for that bit either, A. Dumbledore."

"Really?" Harry clutched the note in one hand and, double-checking his cloak and forcing a still-monologuing Draco to hold the other corner of the parchment, ground out, "Blood pop."

He felt a hook behind his navel as the dizzying sensation took hold and "Vernon" and the clearing were gone.

**Did they make it in time?**

**Is Harry's acceptance of Hermione as final as it seemed?**

**Where is Ron?**

**...Where _is_ Ron?**

**Tell me what you think! I like to know if I've tricked you or not...**


	24. The Missing Rodent

**The Mystery of the Missing Weasley: Conclusion**

**Diss the claim: Do you really want to hurt me, oh oh, do you really want to make me cry?**

**Lawyers(stoically): We need some of your blood, too. To rip your lifeforce from your body.**

**Me: I... Do _not_ own Harry Potter in any way, shape, or form. (Or that song.)**

**Dedications are _so_ last chapter. This story is married to Non Innocent Angel.**

"Oh, definitely _not_ the best time," Karkaroff was saying gleefully as Draco and Harry appeared.

"Harry!" Hermione cried, throwing herself from the very place they'd left her to crush Harry in a frantic hug. Had she been standing there that entire time?

Dumbledore approached with oddly muted footsteps and inconspicuously slipped the Jade from between Harry and Draco's hands with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his lips, "54 minutes. Just in time, I'd say."

Harry instantly felt much better and set about reassuring Hermione of both his safety ("Honestly, I was fine; poor Draco had to deal with me under the influence, though." Draco rolled his eyes) and forgiveness ("You thought you were helping. It can't be cured, though, and if you'd _talked to me, _you'd have known- oh, don't cry!" Draco rolled his eyes yet again and got a rough nudge in the side for the repetitive scorn). The three of them had some time to explain themselves to one another as Viktor took just a minute longer than they had.

When he came back, the scoring placed them solidly in second (after Fleur) as Cedric lost a large number of points for not finishing and Viktor was still working off the point loss from crushing half of the dragon eggs in the first task. Although he had done well in this second challenge, he'd immediately retreated to the erstwhile empty Quidditch pitch for some soothing, death-defying flying practice with the broomstick he'd retrieved from the forest. Ah, how relaxing...

"I'm exhausted," Harry declared, hanging off Draco's back pathetically since Draco couldn't dislodge him for fear of paralysis, "Carry me."

"...You _can't_ be serious," Draco groaned and Hermione giggled at their byplay ("Oi! I've been through a traumatic experience!" "Lies and blaspheme! I was there, you know!") almost giddily, as she was still high on forgiveness.

The trio was back togeth- wait. "Where's Ron?" She frowned, looking around as they stood in the middle of the path to the castle where they'd stopped when Harry slung himself onto Draco as if he would suddenly appear.

Harry's brow furrowed as he slumped fully onto Draco's back as he thought, his arms tightening slightly around the Slytherin's neck and sending Draco into twitching fits, "Where _is_ Ron, anyway?" **(1)**

"He probably got lost," Draco snorted dismissively, slipping his fingers between Harry's arms and his throat in the interest of self-preservation.

"What if he's hurt?" Hermione fretted, "Who knows what he's been up to since I..." She trailed off and for a moment no one could think of anything to break the silence.

Harry paled, "Lavender."

Draco turned this over for a moment, rejecting the possibility he was talking about the color scheme in their rooms making Ron go blind and plummet unknowingly off a moving staircase _(...Darn_)_,_ and moving on to... Brown. ...Brown? Brown Lavender? OH- "Lavender Brown?"

"What does Lavender have to do with anything?" Hermione asked hesitantly. She was well aware of how condescending and bossy she could sound sometimes. It took careful articulation to avoid but she didn't want to put any added stress on the newly regained friendship between herself and Harry. If it was true that Harry and Malfoy would need each other in their future, she might as well set about converting Draco. Eyeing the way he was watching one of her best friends, she wondered if her intervention was really necessary.

Harry broke into her thoughts to explain Lavender's true relevance, "She just might have castrated him."

Needless to say, they sprinted to the hospital wing.

"Madam Pomphrey!" Harry called agitatedly as they skidded into the blankly sterile room. The nurse, however, was no where to be seen. The office in the corner, though, had a light on inside and a shadow could be seen bustling about.

"Harry, mate, you came to visit!" Ron said in an abnormally loud tone of voice from a bed near the door. He leaned forward, continuing in a desperate whisper, "Now bust me out!" His fearful countenance seemed out of place in the unusually peaceful hospital wing. It appeared for once he had it to himself, since the school had been watching the tournament instead of getting injured in potio- er, that is to say, "classes."

"What?" Harry blinked in confusion, "What's wrong?" Ron didn't appear injured, though; was it possible he had been taken _prisoner?_

Ron opened his mouth to answer, but the door to the nurse's office opened and all the blood drained from his face before he could respond.

"Mr. Potter! And Mr. Malfoy, too!" Madam Pomphrey smiled and the two boys both greeted her. The smile fell from her face like flaking dried mud, "Now get out and don't disturb my patient."

"Er, hi," Hermione waved, feeling left out. Madam Pomphrey nodded at her, otherwise ignoring her existence for the duration of her stay.

"What's wrong with Weasel number seven?" Draco jerked a thumb at Ron, who scowled and crossed his arms over his chest with a dramatic "Humph!" Draco wasn't sure he'd gotten the number right, but the fact that it was high was all that mattered.

"He tried to interfere with the task," Pomphrey said primly, "examining" the ceiling.

"What did he do!" Harry exclaimed in dismay, knowing that there were a lot of ways he could have gotten hurt in the Forbidden Forest.

"I tried to keep Dumbledore from taking your stuff!" Ron cried indignantly.

"He attempted to take and hide your 'most cherished' item in the Divination tower after leading Albus on a wild goose chase for a good half an hour," Pomphrey adjusted the outburst smoothly, "And somehow got stunned, bound and nearly Vanished at once in the presence of Albus, Minerva, and Severus."

"Bet you Snape did the banishing," Ron muttered to himself.

"Was that an accusation against an esteemed faculty member I hear?" Madam Pomphrey looked about, fluttering her hands about her with wide eyes.

Her smile was icy cold, though, as Ron stammered, "N-no, _ma'am, _Madam."

"Good..."

Hermione turned to Harry, who was once again resting his full weight on Draco with half-lidded eyes as he valiantly battled sleep. "I'll stay with Ron," Hermione waved off his sleepy protests, "Madam Pomphrey wants you out anyway and you've got to be at least a _tiny_ bit tired." She smiled mischievously.

"Nope," Harry slurred, resting his head on Draco's unoccupied shoulder (the other was supporting his arms), "Not one bit."

"Don't fall asleep," Draco ordered, grabbing the drowsy brunette to his side anyway in case he did and collapsed to the floor. He just didn't want to get paralyzed. Yup...

And if it felt nice to be that close, that was his subconscious's business _alone_.

ALONE.

...Draco was really having trouble with his subconscious lately and wondered what he could do about looking into a replacement...

"Away my white steed," Harry taunted groggily and Draco grouchily thanked the high heavens he hadn't put the effort into making it audible to the peanut gallery.

So it was that with a lot of unconcerned dismissals from Draco, begs from Ron, explanations from Hermione, and toneless protests from Harry, the two boys made their way out of the hospital wing and unsteadily (on Harry's part at least) to their room.

They didn't bother to get undressed, falling heavily onto the bed, and Harry was asleep before his head touched the pillow. The lilac torch put itself out and Draco watched unimpressed as Harry began to snore quietly. A book appeared on the bedside table on _Denial and You: The Intricate Inner Relations of Your Mind_, and Draco irritably hit it to the floor, grumbling to himself as he clutched Harry a little closer and closed his eyes.

**(1) This is starting to feel like Perry the Platypus. 0_o**

**I love the Room of Requirement, don't you? She's such a sweetie...**


	25. Of Lestranges and Leprechauns

**It's short, but to get back into the swing of things, it might as well be.**

**Dedicated to Non Innocent Angel.**

**Disclaimer: Own no Harry. Profit no money. Sue no Kitty.**

"Ricky says hi," Harry commented, still chewing, during breakfast the morning after the second Task. An owl had flown in with a rare letter for him, and Draco hadn't had enough curiosity to read it over his shoulder. Which appeared to have been a mistake. "I think he's in love with Tonks."

"Give me that." Draco snatched the parchment and scanned it hastily, mouthing the words without thinking about it. From the way Ricky had praised Tonks' actions and er- assets- Draco could see what Harry was inferring, or rather what Ricky was blatantly implying, but, either way, "It'd never work. He's far too young for her." When Harry shrugged, another thought occurred to the snarky blonde, "And why is he writing _you_ to say he's safe at Durmstrang?" After taking another bite, Harry held up the empty envelope, addressed to "Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy."

"Oh?" Harry supplied for him when Draco appeared to have lost control of his verbal functions.

"Oh," Draco repeated blankly.

"Yeah, your cousin still loves you Draco. I just figured with the random letter nonsense you got to have earlier, I deserved a shot." The explanation was far from explicatory- to Draco's point of view- but one concept came across clearly.

"Right; I- I still can't tell you about what that letter said. It's just- I panicked, because of something that was in it, but I've sort of calmed down and looked at it rationally since then, so…" Draco was confusing _himself_ at this point, and offered tentatively, "Sorry?"

Ron tilted slowly around Harry to look at Draco with widened eyes.

For his part, Harry just nodded and kept eating, "Delayed apology accepted."

There was a pause as Draco processed the nonchalance. "You weren't even mad, were you?"

"Not one bit," Harry replied without hesitation. He understood family things and politics better than Draco gave him credit for. After some thought. After a lot of thought. After asking Blaise while Draco was distracted.

"…I just apologized for nothing."

"Yes, you did."

"…I hate you."

"No, you don't."

After a second's thought, Draco put down his fork with a clatter, "Damn it."

Harry's smugness was highly unappreciated with his messy mouthed grin and unnecessarily triumphant, "Told you."

Draco really had thought about his precarious home situation quite thoroughly, and he figured not even his father could fault him for 'acting' to 'soften up' someone who was just noble enough to sacrifice themselves to bring down another they deemed evil enough. He was fairly certain Harry had never seen him as quite _that evil_, but the letter he'd sent home while Harry slept had been received positively. He hadn't expected his father to fall so easily for it, having foreseen a long and tension-laden exchange of letters until his loyalty to his father had been reaffirmed, but it appeared his father was as desperate for an explanation as Draco was to give one.

Good thing Draco had stumbled upon those infertility curses in his less morally developed phase.

Actually, good thing Draco hadn't thought that around a teacher with any working knowledge of Legilimancy. He really needed to get a handle on that thought sorting Professor Snape had made a game of when he was younger.

Naturally, just thinking of the topic caused any thoughts he'd suppressed to spring to the forefront of his mind just as he and Harry were sitting down in the History of Magic classroom that day. Ron was back to sitting with Hermione, but at the table behind Draco and Harry.

"Harry, stay awake," the bushy-haired Gryffindor hissed urgently, "Professor Binns has been much more aware than usual."

"Mm-hm," Harry replied without opening his eyes as the cold desk cooled his strangely warm forehead. Maybe he was starting to get a fever due to Draco dragging him over to the probably plague-ridden Slytherin table so often. Actually, there's a great line to tell Draco. The look on his face if Harry said that he literally made him sick.

Or it could be some weird after effect of the jade.

"You might want to stay awake, mate," Ron's eagerness in backing up Hermione earned him a warm smile from the bookworm, but it was quickly dropped when Ron continued, "Sean didn't disappear after the Task."

"Sean?" She echoed.

"The leprechaun is where?" Harry mumbled, luckily into a dry set of notes. Draco tried not to imagine what could have happened had there been ink on Harry's lips to wipe off, but it was something like thinking of trying not to think of a tree.

Maple. Oak. Yew. Elder. And so on.

His point? Exactly.

Anyway, Ron was for once utterly oblivious to Draco's inner line of thinking. Perhaps he needed sleep deprivation to become observant.

"He's in this very room, Harry," Ron replied with a painful looking smile that seemed to want to burst the seams of his control and become the grin it was meant to be.

A moment of connecting the dots he'd separated with the overlong train of thought, and Draco realized the little Scottish menace was somewhere in the classroom, waiting to pounce. He shivered in a strange empathy for the longhaired girls, innocently writing and sleeping at their desks. If something leprechaun-like happened to his own perfect gel helmet, he didn't know what he would do. On that note, he should probably be grateful Harry hadn't discovered hair ruffling.

"And what is he doing here, Ron?" Harry asked quietly so as not to alert Binns, yet still not completely rising from his comfortable face plant.

"He's brought the others."

A whooping arose from the back of the classroom then, and others joined in from the sides.

"For Scotland!" Ron cried, standing with one fist in the air.

"For Scotland!" The leprechauns echoed, and pounced.


	26. Leprechauns' Bad Luck & Draco's Denial

**Another super short chapter. Because it's been a long time and I just reread everything. .**

**Diss the claim: You get the gist.**

**Dedicated and devoted to our dear Non Innocent Angel**

Honestly, the leprechauns hadn't caused as much trouble as expected. They'd snarled hair and thrown illusory fool's gold and Binns would probably never care enough to remove the four-leaf clovers growing from the walls and floor, but, displaying some of the brains her sister's intelligence implied she should have, Parvati had frozen them all with individual petrificus totali. She'd risen, like lava from a mountain's peak, or Hel from... Hel, and delivered unto the suddenly terrified leprechauns an unholy reckoning of rapid-fire spellwork. Her eyes blazed as she brushed her beloved, raven-dark hair off one shoulder.

"Never. Touch. A woman's. Hair."

The leprechauns heard and obeyed, scuttling from the classroom even as Sean climbed the back of Ron's chair and dove into his book bag, peeking out only to hiss a "shush" in Ron's general direction before he disappeared among the sparse materials Ron actually brought to class. The girls of the class rose as one and gave Parvati a standing ovation, save Hermione, who had never understood all the fuss people made over hair, anyway.

"I wouldn't even be able to tell the difference," she muttered, pulling a strand of curls in front of her face and frowning at it. "I think its natural state is 'snarled.'" Harry could relate, but wisely kept his mouth shut. He really didn't need another hair care lecture from Draco; he got enough of those while Draco was gelling down his hair in the morning.

Binns' lecture had not varied in tone as the short-lived rebellion rose and fell in his classroom, but he looked up curiously when Ron snorted at Hermione's remark. "Three points from Gryffindor, Weasley," he murmured, resuming his monologue sans hiccup or pause after the brief interjection. Ron threw a hand upwards disbelievingly, angrily wide eyes darting from a snickering Harry to Binns as if to ask whether Harry had witnessed that. The way Harry practically folded over with silent laughter told him yes, Harry had seen that, and yes, Ron really needed to start looking for new best friends. Hermione had no sympathy for him, still examining her own hair pensively, and Draco... Ron's eyes narrowed; Draco was just watching Harry laugh with a little half-smile on his face.

Ron turned back to his notes, since no one else was taking them, but he didn't like this development. He didn't like it _one bit_. Sensing the mood, Sean's tongue was visible for a second above the edge of Ron's book bag in a silent raspberry towards Draco and Harry. Not a soul noticed.

After class, the newly-reformed Golden Trio spent some time catching each other up on what had happened in their lives during their unfortunate schism. Draco was willingly silent, offering not a quip nor an insult, though not out of courtesy (as no one assumed). He was rather, erm, trapped in his own thoughts during their little get together. Harry's laugh never failed to distract him, but he was thinking about Harry, anyway. Yes, Draco Malfoy was thinking very deeply, actually, on the topic of Harry Potter. More specifically, on what his feelings for that thrice-curst Harry Potter might be.

He definitely liked Harry, in a friendly fashion. The Gryffindor was endearing, when he got right down to it- a bit resourceful, a bit adorable, a bit kind. He'd come up with how to defeat the dragon without harming it; he'd taken Draco's mood swings in stride; he'd smiled at Draco so openly Draco thought his heart might break-

Draco twitched and mentally strangled that thought process, ignoring how Ron threw him a strange look before jumping back into conversation with his two 'best mates EVER.' _What next? _Draco asked the poor metaphysical construct that had displeased him, _'Oh, I just _melt _when Harry bats those emerald eyes at me,' or 'I wish Harry would take me in his arms and never let go?' _The mental construct whimpered for mercy and inner Draco whispered, _I thought not, _letting the manifestation of all things fluffy and cute dissipate back into the dark depths of repression from whence it had came. Honestly, the whole thing was ridiculous. The whole unnamed _thing_ which the fluffy bits of him thought up couldn't possibly be true. They were friends, weren't they? _If any__thing, _he found himself thinking, taking in Harry's too-thin frame, _I'd want to take Harry in _my _arms._

A vague, _I knew it! _came from the back of Draco's mind and inner Draco growled.

_Haven't learned your lesson yet, have you?_

_Eep._


	27. Cold and Blushing

**Diss the claim for me, please.**

**Hopelessly devoted to Non Innocent Angel.**

Days came and went and the autumn leaves gave up their faltering hold to be swept away in winter's cold breath. The first day snow had fallen, Ron had dragged Hermione, Draco, and Harry outside for a snowball fight, believing he and Hermione would find it easy to crush their handicapped opponents. Turned out that Draco knew a few spells uniquely suited for snowball fights, enabling them to hold their own until Hermione had watched and adapted, beginning to fire back her own magically crafted snowballs, and only fifteen minutes later the Interhouse duo admitted defeat.

In a private aside, the three boys agreed that the use of Hermione in snowball fights would be tantamount to using an atom bomb and that the other side would need to retaliate with the Weasley twins for any chance of victory. The tentative ceasefire between Ron and Draco was peppered with suspicious looks and raised eyebrows, but at least the uneasy peace continued as Hermione was reabsorbed back into the amoeba-like closeness of the Golden Trio as if she had never left.

Draco could almost hear the stretching noise as he dragged Harry over to the Slytherin table so Draco could speak with his _own _acquaintances. He was pretty sure Blaise had something important to tell him; the dark-haired Italian had been giving him meaningful glances since lunch, when they'd sat with the Gryffindors. _He couldn't have just told me at breakfast? _Draco pondered irritably. Well, it was possible he just figured something out or received a message from his father or just plain remembered half way through the day.

It was only when Harry muttered, "I'll sit first, then," and plopped down on the Slytherin table's bench that Draco realized they'd reached their destination. He shook his head and shot Harry a quiet, deadpan "sorry" before he followed suit and took his seat at the table of snakes. Blaise finally stopped squirming in his seat and proceeded to shoot Draco more detailed glances, as if he was trying to use some sort of _best friend bond _to get his meaning across. Draco just smiled and nodded until Blaise stopped with an exasperated expression. Like anyone could read someone's looks so easily.

Harry nudged Draco and glanced up to Dumbledore (who was beginning to stand) and back again with a slight widening of his eyes and Draco grimaced. He was hoping the upcoming announcement wouldn't be about the Tournament, too. When Harry's eyes darted to his food speculatively, it was hard not to laugh and Draco rolled his eyes to assuage Harry's apparent fear that Dumbledore would have a long speech prepared and keep him from his food.

Then Draco realized what he'd been doing, and turned back to Blaise with wide eyes. Blaise crossed his arms over his chest with a little huff, adding aloud, "See? It' possible!"

"Is _that _what you were trying to say?"

"No!"

A little obligatory verbal chaos, and just when Draco felt he'd brought the situation under control enough to get whatever-it-was out of Blaise, Dumbledore cleared his throat from the podium. He'd thought the third Task was still under preparation, so it was hopefully unlikely to be declaring what that Task was. Draco was a firm believer in the power of denial (he hastily averted his eyes from Harry's throat to the Hogwarts crest-emblazoned podium behind which, the headmaster stood) and so long as he didn't know what the Task was, he couldn't possibly agonize over the million different ways it could kill Harry and him. Honestly, what they'd been through already had been terrifying. There had been so many ways it could have gone horribly, fatally wrong. An image of Harry lying spread eagle with the open rendings of a dragon's claw painting the ground with blood, or crushed in the mandibles of that monstrous acromantula...

Draco tightened his grip on Harry's hand and Harry sent him a puzzled look and a brief squeeze of the fingers before Dumbledore began.

His eyes were twinkling so it better well be good news. "Students, staff, it's getting to that lovely time of year again when the snow is falling and mistletoe is being enchanted," his twinkle seemed to direct itself specifically at a certain group of students at the Ravenclaw table and an amused chitter of laughter rose up around them, "So, in the spirit of the Triwizard Tournament, we've decided to bring back another old tradition: the Yule Ball. Third years and up may attend, as I'm sure the rest of you will need your sleep, and it will take place in the Great Hall the first weekend of winter holidays." The whole thing was surprisingly logical, for Dumbledore, and he was beginning to step down from the podium when he jumped with an _Oh!_ and quickly leaned back to where he had been, "The Champions will be required to attend and open the first dance." He grinned, as if he hadn't just delivered a previously unknown rule, "Perhaps after some lucky students may encounter myself or Professor McGonagall on the dance floor." The way McGonagall scolded him as he puttered back to his seat was lost in the excited chatter that had exploded from all four tables at the idea of a school dance.

"That's what I wanted to ask you about!" Blaise said, raising his voice slightly to be heard in the sudden increase of noise, "Pansy won't let me take her unless you say so!"

"I'm not her father- I don't care!" Draco replied, also forcing his voice a decibel or so louder to be audible, "How did you even know about this?"

A shark's grin, then, and Blaise wiggled an open envelope in Draco's face, "Your father sent _me _instructions on watching you carefully during the Ball!" _...What? _For an unguarded moment, Blaise could clearly see the storm clouds crash and billow over Draco's expression, and a painfully sharp grin slid over it like the lid on a jar.

A carefully controlled nod of the head, "You've rather given yourself away, haven't you?"

"I- I wouldn't actually do this, Draco," Blaise tittered nervously, "You know I wouldn't stab you in the back like that; your father's just being paranoid." He returned Draco's continuing eerie smile outwardly, while inwardly wondering how the hell he just let his mouth open and inserted his foot so very deeply that he could feel his stomach churning unhappily, "Aw, buck up, Draco; it just means he _wu~ubs yo~ou._" The scowl was more familiar to Blaise and he relaxed in the warm, welcoming glow of Draco's annoyance. "_Aw, _can we's protects the wittew Dwaco?"

"Should've eaten with the Gryffindors," Harry whispered nonchalantly, a hint of "neener-neener" in his voice as he popped another cooked artichoke heart into his mouth.

Draco's teeth were suddenly very close to Harry's ear, "Don't make me eat _you_."

_Oh, please, go ahead, _Harry blushed before recovering his senses, "Don't be silly, Draco, I am not eatable."

"Edible," Blaise corrected, with a smirk on his face that smugly proclaimed, _I know what's going on here._

"Eatable is a purely muggle word," Harry lied, primly patting his mouth with a napkin and acting every bit as snooty as the stereoiypical pureblood, "So I suppose I can't possibly expect you to know it."

"You're not funny," Pansy told him without looking away from the lettuce she'd stacked viciously on the tines of her fork.

"I beg to differ," Harry smiled, "I have been told by many a professional I am the utmost epitome of funny."

"In the head," Draco added, matter-of-factly and with no small feeling of vindication when Harry turned a glare in his direction. The resulting argument was bordering on explosive, but Draco couldn't help but love the fact that, the entire time, Harry's eyes would only be on him.


End file.
